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Five items on business for July 10, 2020 – News – Wicked Local Plymouth

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Send news about your local business to MWBusiness@wickedlocal.com. We're interested in news about business people, expansions, openings and community involvement by MetroWest businesses and business people. Follow Daily News Business Editor Bob Tremblay on Twitter @Bob Tremblay_MW.

Center for Vein Restoration opens in Framingham

Center for Vein Restoration (CVR) recently announced the opening of its flagship location in Framingham. The location marks the 19th state to have a CVR location and the furthest east facility of the bi-coastal organization. The office, which overlooks Sucker Pond, is led by Dr. Pamela Kim, one of the newer physicians to join the company. Kim has dedicated her education and research efforts to the study of vascular surgery and phlebology, making her the perfect fit for the national practice exclusively focused on veins and venous disorders, according to CVR. The company is the largest physician-led practice treating vein disease in the country. With 80 centers and growing, CVR has more than 500 employees and conducts over 200,000 patient interactions annually. For more information, visit http://www.centerforvein.com.

MutualOne awards $7,000 to Family Promise Metrowest

Mark R. Haranas, president and CEO of MutualOne Bank and chairman of the MutualOne Charitable Foundation, has announced a $7,000 grant to support the Local Initiative for Family Empowerment (LIFE) program at Family Promise Metrowest in Natick. The LIFE program is a homelessness prevention program supporting families with children who are not yet homeless, but are at risk of eviction, said Executive Director Sue Crossley. The grant was among awards totaling $63,960 in the foundations most recent round of funding. Established in 1998 as the philanthropic arm of MutualOne Bank, the Framingham-based foundation has since donated more than $4.8 million to charitable, educational and civic initiatives designed to improve and enrich the quality of life in Framingham, Natick and surrounding communities.

Framingham credit union announces scholarship winners

MetroWest Community Federal Credit Union in Framingham recently announced that Joseph Harrington of Ashland High School and Andrew Xu of Belmont High School are this years Richard J. Callahan Memorial Scholarship recipients. Both students excelled academically as they graduated in the top 15% of their schools respectively, but what truly differentiated these two from other candidates was their community service, according to the credit union. Over the course of his high school career, Xu accumulated more than 1,000 volunteer hours between Mount Auburn Hospital, Boston Childrens Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Over the same period, Harrington accumulated more than 300 volunteer hours at Ashland Youth Baseball and made several large donations via fundraisers for organizations such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Jimmy Fund and many more. Callahan, a lifelong resident of Framingham, served on the credit union board for more than 40 years. Scholarships in the amount of $1,000 were awarded to both recipients in Callahan's memory. He died in 2018.

Eversource restarts in-person energy efficiency services

In an effort to ensure the safety and well-being of customers and contractors while also providing money and energy-saving solutions, Eversource is implementing new health and safety guidelines for the restart of energy efficiency services in customer homes and businesses. Eversource worked with Environmental Health & Engineering, a health and safety consulting firm, to develop guidelines specific to energy efficiency work. These guidelines include the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing and enhanced sanitizing requirements in line with the latest recommendations and industry best practices for reducing the spread of COVID-19. For more information, visit Eversource.com.

Dr. Rene Moran Medical Aesthetics Spa re-opens in Newton

Dr. Rene Moran, owner of Dr. Rene Moran Medical Aesthetics of Newton Centre, has teamed up with Board Certified Holistic Nutritionist and Wellness Coach Jennifer Hanway to offer clients a holistic approach to skincare, body contouring and health. The medical spa is now open and is one of the only in the state to offer nutrition services in conjunction with treatments such as Botox, HydraFacials, CoolTone and CoolSculpting to enhance their results with the proper health and wellness approaches customized for each patient. For more information, visit http://www.drmoran.com.

About: Founded in 1941, MetroWest Community Federal Credit Union is fully committed to helping individuals in local communities manage their financial needs by offering a wide range of affordable savings and loan products. For more information, visit mwcfcu.com/About-MetroWest.

Marcus Saint-Louis | Marketing & Business Development Rep.

MetroWest Community Federal Credit Union

200 Concord St. Framingham MA 01702-8384

508-879-5522 Ext.212 | msaint-louis@mwcfcu.com

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Five items on business for July 10, 2020 - News - Wicked Local Plymouth

My parents made me believe I can be the best – Vanguard

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Oke Bayode-ThomasBy Kennedy Mbele

Oke Bayode-Thomas, 24, just bagged the highest award a young person can receive for social action and humanitarian efforts The Diana Award for Young Heroes. The award was instituted in memory of the late Princess Diana of Wales and given out by the charity of the same name and has the support of her both sons, The Duke of Cambridge and The Duke of Sussex. Oke speaks on what the award means to him.

I am a Nigerian trained computed tomography specialist medical radiographer. I am also a member of the European Society of Radiology and currently the Administrative Director and Co-founder of The Invasion Group, a nonprofit organization which focuses on harnessing the strength of young minds for change and also the co-founder of Mentors in Nigeria Initiative, a community of mentors who support young people to make empowered decisions and believe in their potential.

Growing up in an under-served community, I experienced the profound impact of mentoring myself and want other young people to have this opportunity too.

My organizations have over one hundred committed volunteer mentors who provide support to young people. Many mentees are resistant at first but soon see the potential. 50 of the young people who have been mentored through the programs have gone on to become mentors themselves.

I am a strategic thinking professional with more than three years experience in the non-profit space. Highly skilled at relationship building with clients and across organizations and teams, I also work with community-based organizations and government health institutions to advance health education and promote awareness, and for which I have been nominated for several awards, publications in prestigious newspapers and subsequent A-grade national TV interviews.

I am a role model and strong influencer for hundreds of young people across Nigeria. I took a medical degree from the University of Lagos. I am a young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) fellow and a finalist in the regional finals of the Hult Prize business competition Abuja, 2018.

I am also a certified design thinker having undergone training with the USAID and the Lufthansa group. My latest award is the 2020 The Diana Award for World Outstanding Young Heroes created and endorsed by the two sons of late princess Diana, the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex.

To create an ecosystem of vibrant youths with a changed mindset, equipped to be ethical leaders and motivated to deliver and scale positive impact through Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Environmental and Social Economic; harness the strength of youths to effect a change in their immediate environment by inspiring, empowering and equipping a new breed of leaders through the acquisition of skills for personal, organizational and community transformation; grow to be an organization with global standards and best practices providing empowerment initiatives and global services, with core interest in education for a sustainable future, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by the Model United Nations.

We have a program that aims at matching youths with caring adult mentors who are trained to focus on positive reinforcement, trust-building, and the achievement of goals, by engaging youths in a manner to enhance self-development.

I have always had this drive to be an outstanding individual in every sphere and area I find myself. Being a medical student, I was exposed to a lot of opportunities that I could leverage to pursue excellence at all cost which was what made me to start my first project with friends who shared similar values.

The project was named THE INVASION GROUP. Later on, while achieving great milestones, we thought young people between the ages of 13 and18 are at the most vulnerable stage of their lives and are faced with the challenge of making life-defining decisions. Due to lack of direction, many young persons have made bad decisions which have resulted in negative outcomes such as high school dropout, substance abuse, or participation in risky behaviours.

Through repeated failures in the classroom and the development of destructive habits, at-risk young people (13-18) have lost faith in the possibilities that await them if they are successful in putting their lives together. I then co-founded Mentors in Nigeria Initiative with the sole aim of creating a community of mentors saddled with the responsibility of promoting a positive mindset in young people and helping them make better life-defining decisions.

So I would say my drive and passion was to be an influence on people which I have been doing with all diligence for the past four years now. It was not easy combining it with my studies, as a medical student, but the Lord has always been my strength.

I was amazed because I never saw it coming, but I was excited because it came in timely when I launched my Conversation series on the social media themed: Your one step to Transformation with Oke Bayode which made me so excited.

I have bagged several awards and nominations right from my primary school days. I had a series of awards for the projects I did while at the University of Lagos, but this is the best award I have received so far.

Who is your role model?I have been privileged to have a lot of mentors who I look up to and who have shaped my life in diverse ways. I have a spiritual figure in the person of Rev. Alexander Faranpojo. But Babayomi and Funmilayo Oke, my parents, were my first mentors who made me believe that I can be anything I want to be if I put my mind to it.

My role model is Dupe Akinsiun, Head, Leadership & Culture Center of Expertise at Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, Nigeria.

A conglomerate! I envision a safe space where we would have produced youths who will become great people of influence and who will also go on to create a prototype of themselves, filling the world with people who can reach their potentials. I want to see these NGOs as resource hub for others in that space.

I have the best team in the whole world; all of these achievements would never have come without their efforts. I am speaking about my co-founders, Olusegun Marvellous and Ogunbela Ridwan.

These are great men of influence in their respective fields. They made our projects easy and we were able to put our strengths together to achieve these milestones.

To my admirers, keep out of crime and always jump out of the train of ills, choose your friends, and dont be open to anybody as a friend. A friend that cant add value to your life is not worth being around you.

Most importantly, fear God and keep doing what youre doing and do it best. Lastly, dont settle for anything, always have a choice.

Receiving the Diana Awards is my highest moment. Another high point in my life was when we did the biggest campus-led campaign in Lagos tagged R.A.C.I.N.G Race against cancer in Nigeria.

We gained a lot of traction from various influencers, television stations transmitted it and it was published in many newspapers. We had over 1, 500 students present at the campaign which took place at the Johnson Jakande Tinubu park.

Others are results seen through our mentorship program, seeing youths discovering their potentials and undergoing training on how to monetize their dreams is fulfilling. My low moments were times when we were bound with the constraint of funding.

At these times, we had to outsource funds from family members because we were so young and seemed inexperienced to organizations.

Hence, we received little or no form of funding for our projects but amidst all that, our projects were always a success because we were more driven by passion than money.

Vanguard News Nigeria.

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My parents made me believe I can be the best - Vanguard

Leading in difficult times: The perspective of the Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana – GhanaWeb

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Opinions of Saturday, 11 July 2020

Columnist: thebusiness24online.net

Patricia Sappor, President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers

Leadership today is altruism: self-sacrifice, love for humanity, selflessness and philanthropy.

Leaders catch people doing things right.

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens November 30, 1835 April 21, 1910, known by his pen name Mark Twain, an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer) once said:

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. Mark Twain

As Mark Twain pithily points out, leaders today have to handle constant pressure well and need to allow their people the room to grow by making remediable mistakes and learning from them.

Perfectly close proximity role models for this new more empathetic type of leader are mothers at home. They excel at home because they can be who they want to be.

Mothers instinctively know how to connect and engage, communicate and support, nurture and develop those they are responsible for, all the time and simultaneously. They are also effective at setting boundaries and are there to deliver appropriate sanctions and consequences for inappropriate behaviour.

They tend to do this with no hierarchy, and only implicit authority. Today, being the leader doesnt have to mean behaving like the boss.

How different could our world be if we accepted that todays contemporary leaders need to focus far more on their ability to influence and persuade rather than barking a set of instructions or commands. The trick is to identify those with the spikes of emotional intelligence and empathy.

By constantly preferring to catch people doing things right the culture will move away from a fear of failure and towards a desire for success. Mothers do this at home without thinking the essential Spike for todays progressive leaders.

Extraordinary times demand extraordinary leadership, this must become the era where we universally accept and look for mothers as leaders.

1.Why is inspiring others necessary in leadership?

Inspiring leaders want their people to develop. They invest in them, and they encourage activities that foster physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth & well-being.

Honesty builds trust and gets others to believe in your inspiration. The ability to inspire others is an important skill, one that will help you achieve the success you desire. Keep your message authentic and human to amplify your results, inspire others, and excel in your work life.

2.How can a leader inspire others?

2.1. Start with scheduling more one on one sessions.

Get off on the right track by making consistent clear goals and expectations an operational reality. You do that through the lost art of one-on-one conversations a great motivational tool. Leaders thrive when they strengthen relationships with their people by spending more one-on-one sessions with them to hear their suggestions, ideas, problems and issues. But first, you need to know how to structure these meetings so that they work to your advantage.

2.2. Find out what motivates them.

Do you know what gets your team members out of bed in the morning? What theyre passionate about their goals, aspirations, and interests? In other words, do you really know your team members? Great leaders show an interest in their peoples jobs and career aspirations in order to motivate them the right way. Once thats been established, they look into the future to create learning and development opportunities for their people. They find out what motivates their best people by getting to know what desires will drive each team member. This is about emotional engagement.

2.3. Provide the resources they need to do their work exceptionally well.

Its a simple question, but youd be surprised how often it is not asked: What do you need right now to do your job better? You may be surprised, or even shocked at the answer; it could be that they need access to more information to make the right decisions, better equipment or even another work space. Acting on what you find out will be a huge motivational booster.

2.4. Praise and compliment them often.

I dont like to be recognized, said no human being, ever. Leaders have to get into the habit of praising and complimenting their people for their good qualities and work. Successful leaders use recognition and praise as a powerful motivator to get their team commitments. They find that employees who receive such recognition on a regular basis increase their individual productivity, receive higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers, and are more likely to stay with their organization. How regular are we talking?

2.5. Help co-create purposeful work.

People want meaning and purpose in their work. In the book Give and Take, Wharton professor Adam Grant says that when a person finds purpose in their work, it not only improves that persons happiness, it also boosts productivity. One way to give employees that purpose, according to Grant, is to have them meet the very people they are helping and serving, even if just for a few minutes.

2.6. Help them develop new skills.

Although important, Im not so much talking about putting them through another required technical or safety training program to keep them or the business compliant, but actually giving them meaningful new skills or knowledge in other areas that they can use to leverage their natural strengths for future roles, whether with their current company or another company. The point is to serve and value them so exceptionally well as people and workers that they have no reason to leave but use their newfound skills for new projects.

3.How can a leader help others achieve a purpose?

The best leaders delegate often and give their employees responsibility for delivering challenging work. If this doesnt happen in your workplace, consider two hard questions:

Do you trust your knowledge workers to do what theyve been hired to do?

Do they have the right competence for the job to carry out the work with confidence?

Focus on making others successful. Communicate a powerful vision. Deliver positive results. Build alliances via strategic networking. Increase self-awareness and self-monitoring.

4.What roles does empowerment play in leadership development?

Empowerment is a means to include the team in decision making, to give them a participatory role which capitalizes on their own expertise and judgment, and that increases their sense of both individual worth and commitment to the organization. When planning to empower employees, the leader needs to first examine the organization as a whole, including the companys mission, goals, financial state, and employee training needs. Then the leader would give employees some decision-making responsibilities and provide coaching as needed.

5.Can a leader be selective amongst who to Inspire?

A leader must lead all, essentially pulling everybody along because the strength of a chain lies in its weakest link. It is only natural that in any group a leader will find some inner circle among the group members. But this should not create disdain for others outside that inner circle.

6.How can a leader help others to actualise their personal visions/goals?

6.1 Regularly discuss performance objectives.

6.2 Include a way to measure personal growth.

6.3 Offer opportunities for employee development.

6.4 Support employees who want to pursue new roles in the company.

6.5 Offer career coaching to help employees achieve their goals.

How should a leader handle or deal with a difficult follower?

No matter how long youve been in post, the challenges of a tough team member never go away. Maybe its one person, or maybe its a small group, either way, there will be a potential headache for you. One thing Ive noticed among clients is that a difficult team member(s) often becomes the focus for the leader to the exclusion of all else it seems. That person becomes their Achilles heel and absorbs time and attention in a disproportionate amount compared to the challenges that team member actually presents.

So heres one thing you need to know.

One effective way to handle a difficult person, is to strengthen the team around that person so that his negative influence is diluted. Its hard to gossip if no-one will listen to you. Its impossible to spread rumors if everyone around you already knows the truth. Its tough to spread negativity if everyone is highly motivated and positive. Its a challenge to bad-mouth others if the others are liked and respected. Its uncomfortable attempting to be snide if your colleagues are ready to call you out on your behaviour. Do you see the idea here? Instead of fixing the behaviour you dont want, encourage the ones you do. Strongly, passionately and relentlessly. You could also consider appropriate sanctions as a way of reforming this person.

8. Is role model or mentoring relevant for leadership development?

Because a role model sets an example that others try to follow, a role model is thus a leader. They use this self-awareness to better themselves and develop positive qualities associated with good role models, such as optimism, support, and empathy to develop their employees. The leadership behavior, modeling the way, is simply the leader doing what he or she expects the followers to do or to become. If you expect people to speak respectfully to each other, you speak respectfully to them.

You have inspired a lot of leaders. Please share what has worked for you?

More and more people feel stuck at work and are looking for validation. Not only do they want to be heard, but more importantly they want to know that their contributions are being noticed and not taken for granted. Not for the sake of attention, but more so because they want to know that their skill sets are still relevant and useful and that they are making a difference to advance the organizations they serve. Tell people exactly what you want them to do; motivate them enough to share in any sacrifices necessary. Appeal to their emotions; Give people multiple reasons for doing what you want them to do; Be the change you want to inspire and Finally appeal to peoples value system.

How can a leader avoid costly mistakes?

Leadership also comes with its share of challenges, especially if youre new to it. How do you earn your teams respect? What do you do when you have to supervise friends? How can you lead a staff and still get your own work done?

10.1 Doing everything yourself

New leaders often feel they cant ask for help without undermining their authority. Worse, they believe if they dont take on everything, their boss and staff will think they arent up to the challenge. Simply put: You cant do it all.

10.2 Being on the same terms with former peers

No one said it would be easy to supervise people you used to work side by side with. Its tempting to keep things the same as theyve always been, but this is a mistake. Trying to be both a friend and a boss sets you up for bad decision making, awkward conflicts and accusations of favoritism. Set boundaries quickly rather than seeing how things develop, or else you may cause confusion and foster resentment.

10.3 Nit-picking your team

While you want to prove to senior management that they didnt make a mistake by promoting you, resist the temptation to helicopter over staff to make sure everything gets done just right. Doing so sabotages employee motivation and leads to disgruntlement, not respect. Strong leaders empower their team to make smart decisions, take wise risks and manage their own workflow. Bad bosses cause good employees to quit.

10.4 Trying to make your mark right away

To show the team youre now in charge, you should make a series of sweeping changes immediately. Right? Wrong. You first need to adjust to your new role and learn more about your teams dynamics. Listen to your staff. Seek your bosss advice. Read books on leadership. Then, start with small, incremental changes. Therell be plenty of time for major overhauls later.

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Leading in difficult times: The perspective of the Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana - GhanaWeb

Discovery opens up new path in study of marine evolution and biodiversity – UCLA Newsroom

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

New UCLA research indicates that an evolutionary phenomenon never before observed among marine life could help explain why there is such immense biodiversity in the worlds coral reefs and the ocean beyond.

Two studies one of reef-dwelling marine snails, the other of similar mollusks called nudibranchs show for the first time that new species of both groups may be emerging as a result of host-switching, in which populations of these animals that rely on a single species of coral for food and habitat switch to a new coral species, leading to wide genetic and physical differentiation. The phenomenon had only been seen previously in viruses, insects and several other organisms.

This is the first time that anyone has seen this, but no one has ever looked, said UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Paul Barber, whose lab conducted both studies. This very well could be the tip of the iceberg.

The findings suggest the possibility that the formation of new and distinct marine species through host-shifting may occur among other marine organisms as well, Barber said, opening up new avenues for research into the causes of marine biodiversity.

On land, new species are typically thought to evolve when natural barriers like mountains, canyons or rivers separate individuals or groups from one another. The ocean, however, has different barriers, including reef structures and currents, both of which contribute to host-shifting among snails and nudibranchs, the researchers note.

The larvae of snails and nudibranchs that subsist on a single species of coral will at times be swept away by ocean currents; if they arent lost or eaten, they can land on an entirely different coral species, where they imprint and spend their whole lives. Eventually, the scientists say, a generational line of snails or nudibranchs will evolve to prefer that particular coral and form a new species.

Its pretty likely that the corals are helping the nudibranchs form new species, in a way, said Allison Fritts-Penniman, lead author of the nudibranch study, which reported a three-fold increase in known species for this group. The more corals they can live on, the more different nudibranch species can evolve.

The two new papers may mark the beginning of marine speciation discoveries for nudibranchs and snails, which are common but understudied, as well as more broadly, said Sara Simmonds, lead author of the snail study, which used genomics to catch speciation in the act.

Finding that divergence and speciation can happen in the oceans even with gene flow is an important discovery, not just for the marine environment but also for understanding evolution and speciation in general, Simmonds said.

Both studies focused on a relatively small area of the western Pacific Ocean known at the Coral Triangle, which has one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world, including 600 different coral species.

If there are so many corals, and so many of them have these strong associations, this very well could be an incredibly important process in generating all of this diversity, said Barber, who also stressed the importance of protecting reef systems like the Coral Triangle from the devastating effects of climate change and industry-related threats.

Preserving the Coral Triangle

The Coral Triangle spans roughly 6.3 million square miles, accounting for about 1.6% of the worlds oceans, and is bordered by several countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. With hundreds of coral species and thousands of species of fish and other marine organisms, it is, Barber says, one of the most biodiverse, least studied and most threatened locations in the world.

While coastal development, unsustainable tourism and habitat destruction through bomb fishing with homemade explosives all pose significant dangers to the region, the biggest threat is climate change, which is damaging the reefs that underpin the Triangles biodiverse ecosystem. Ocean warming, acidification and rising sea levels are causing mass coral bleaching, in which coral expel living algae from their tissues and turn completely white; this can lead to coral death if the stressful conditions continue for too long. The World Wildlife Fund predicts that at the current rate of climate change, the Coral Triangle will disappear by 2100.

Major climate changeinduced damage to the regions biodiversity also puts the economies of the surrounding countries at risk, Barber notes, and a collapse of the marine ecosystem would result in the destruction of the regions vast fishing industry and subsequent food insecurity for hundreds of millions of people.

Continuing to carry out research to boost our understanding what generates biodiversity in the Coral Triangle and other reefs is one of the major keys to protecting them in the fight against climate change, Barber said.

Even the public is getting involved in furthering that understanding, with citizen snorkelers and divers all over the world contributingto an effort by the nonprofit iNaturalist, a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society, to search for new coral-associated nudibranch species and helping scientists with the fieldwork needed for further study.

The Coral Triangle is the worlds largest, most biodiverse marine ecosystem, said Barber. There is still so much to learn from it.

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Discovery opens up new path in study of marine evolution and biodiversity - UCLA Newsroom

The Evolution And Future Of The American Presidency – WBUR

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

How the U.S. presidency became impossible. We talk to John Dickerson of CBS News about why he thinks the job is simply too much for anyone.

John Dickerson, 60 Minutes correspondent and CBS News political analyst. Contributing editor at The Atlantic. Author of "The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency."(@jdickerson)

Kimberly Atkins, WBUR senior news correspondent covering national political news. (@KimberlyEAtkins)

What did the founding fathers have in mind when they conceived the office of the president?

John Dickerson:They did so in a moment of panic because their first rough draft of how this thing was all going to go with the Articles of Confederation had turned out to not work out very well at all. And in going back and doing my work for the book, which included lots of interviews with people who are practitioners, but also looking at the history, you see what a gamble this was to rewrite the rules after 10 years. And basically they wanted to inject enough executive control that the country could react in a unified fashion to emergencies and to moments of national security peril.

"Also help connect the states with respect to the economy so that you didn't have 13 different sets of rules for things. But that the role of the president would be limited, sufficiently representative of the country to do things that only one body and one branch could do. But then would be very limited and Congress would do most of the work. And that's where that notion of diversity comes in. You have people representing all the different kinds of parts of America and people in America which gives a more durable cast to the laws that then govern Americans. And that was in the original conception of it. Now, the idea that we would filter all of our public questions through the one president would just seem crazy to the founders.

On Donald Trump's use of the office of the president

John Dickerson:When I say it's the hardest job in the world, I'm talking about it the way you would a brain surgeon. And the results are just as awful when it's done poorly. And so this isn't an attempt to make excuses. It's an attempt to understand the office so that we can place credit or blame in the right way. President Trump, he's basically not participated in many of the roles of the office acting as a unifier in moments of national crisis or tension. He's actually seen political benefit in splitting the country. And that's not me saying that. That's members of his own party who've said it repeatedly. And this is moments of acute national crisis that we're in right now. But also just more broadly.

"He also has decided not to embrace the kind of more pastoral role or priestly role of the presidency. He's also, on national security, reshaped the way America operates in the world. Some people think that's quite good with turning his attention to China. But others obviously believe that by not maintaining alliances both in Asia and in Europe, he's left America deeply vulnerable. He also basically has a different view of working with Congress. He's put no real energy into any of the bipartisanship or deal-making that we have usually associated with the office. Even if you were unsuccessful, presidents had to at least make a shot or make a go of trying to forge bipartisan compromise. To the extent that there's been bipartisan achievement in his administration has mostly been in areas where he's not been participating.

" And I should say, finally, this isn't to say he has not been successful for those that brought him. He has been among the most successful, and you could argue the most successful Republican president. Cutting taxes, cutting regulations, working on behalf of those who are against abortion rights, increasing defense spending, getting lots of judges through the system, and also just bedeviling liberals, which has been something all of which conservatives have been looking forward to in a Republican president. But that also means he has abdicated the role of the president as the president of the entire country, as opposed to just the president of his political base."

What do we risk if we don't think seriously about how to fix this problem of the presidency being too big and too complex for one person to take on?

John Dickerson:If we don't think about the presidency, we risk constantly being disappointed. And to the extent we're disappointed with the avenues through which we make public change in America, we turn to other methods, which is, you know, revolution, which is extreme actions taken. And that's the whole reason we form a government in the first place, was to keep those things from happening. We also risk having one portion of the country constantly feeling like it's being shut out from the American dream because they feel like the system is rigged against them.

"And we miss and we risk correctly arranging power in the American system to address the biggest challenges of our lives. I mean, the book was finished before our current sets of challenges. But the whole point was basically the presidency is a job of dealing with big, high stakes emergency things that can hit you out of nowhere. And we're dealing with three of them at the moment. Now, not all of them were out of nowhere. But the fact is, if we don't have a system for handling these things, it leads to basically greater suffering and unhappiness on part of fellow Americans.

What's top on your list for how to work towards fixing the presidency?

John Dickerson:Humility is one of the biggest things, which is, you know, we can't snap our fingers and fix this. I think one of the things is to not focus on the presidency as much as we do. Put more pressure on Congress, put more pressure on governors and local officials to do the things that we want done for our lives. So keep the presidential tasks narrow and then focus on where the failures are. It's not just a failure of willpower sometimes on a presidency. It may be a failure of the fact that they don't know how to build a management team to get the job done. And if that turns out to be a really important part of the job, then maybe we should talk about that in campaigns in some fashion. And so basically, it's changing our expectations for what we think candidates should be skilled at so that they have a chance when they get in the job.

"And that means things like their ability to set priorities, their ability to build a management team, all of which I go into in the book, which is based on this idea that I asked all my interview subjects, which was, 'What would you want if you were doing a job interview for the job?' And then the final piece is just instead of thinking about attributes of a presidency as kind of all or nothing instead of having a binary view about the skills of a president recognize some gradations in a president's skills. And so we have a little bit more complex understanding of what the job takes. And the reason that's important is we don't just immediately throw out presidents who don't succeed in exactly the way we want them to. We recognize that it's a little bit more complex, which leads to maybe less disappointment.

Excerpt from "The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency" by John Dickerson

Excerpt from THE HARDEST JOB IN THE WORLD: The American Presidency by John Dickerson 2020. Published by Random House, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher, Random House. All rights reserved.

CBS Sunday Morning: "John Dickerson on the example Ike set for 'The Hardest Job in the World'" "President Dwight Eisenhower had a particular way of doing things."

The Atlantic: "What Trump Should Have Learned From His Predecessors" "Donald Trump should have seen the coronavirus pandemic coming."

Washington Post: "The president as parent consoler, protector and, sometimes, failure" "Throughout our history, presidents have played a parental role for our large, diverse nation."

CBS Sunday Morning: "Book excerpt: John Dickerson's 'The Hardest Job In the World'" "On election night 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt went to his New York townhouse."

Washington Post: "Opinion: The ultimate test of presidential character is restraint" "When one elects a president, character matters above all, or at least should."

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The Evolution And Future Of The American Presidency - WBUR

Cooperation between passive and active silicon transporters clarifies the ecophysiology and evolution of biosilicification in sponges – Science…

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Modeling and testing the physiology of DSi consumption

Live sponges were collected using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Sciences (ROPOS) and taken to the laboratory for incubation in progressively increasing DSi concentrations (12, 30, 60, 100, 150, 200, and 250 M DSi; see Materials and Methods). Initially, all 11 assayed individuals increased their DSi consumption rate in response to the progressive increase of DSi availability in the seawater (Fig. 2, A and B, and tables S1 and S2). As also known for demosponges, the DSi consumption rate notably varied among individuals, with an average maximum consumption of 0.106 0.050 mol Si per milliliter of sponge tissue and per hour (hereafter given as mol Si ml1 hour1) at an average DSi concentration of 150.9 69.3 M. Over that concentration threshold, the consumption rate of most individuals did not increase with increasing DSi availability, revealing that the Si transport system reaches the maximum speed (i.e., optimal utilization) at about 150 M DSi and saturates at higher concentrations.

(A) DSi consumptions of 11 individuals of V. pourtalesii as a function of experimental silicic acid (DSi) concentration in the laboratory. The averaged response fits an ERM model (blue lines) better than a Michaelis-Menten (MM) kinetics (red lines). (B) Statistics of the average consumption (SD) best fitting to an ERM model. Note that DSi consumption calculated both from in situ incubations and from BSi produced under field conditions fall within the 95% confidence band of the model.

Unlike in all demosponges studied to date, the model best fitting the average DSi consumption rate of V. pourtalesii in response to DSi availability did not follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics (r2 = 0.841, P = 0.004; Fig. 2A). An exponential rise to a maximum (ERM) model showed the best fit (r2 = 0.898, P = 0.002; Fig. 2, A and B) to the empirical data on DSi consumption as a function of DSi availability, consumption rate = a (1 b[DSi]). Although the difference in statistical fit between the Michaelis-Menten and ERM models was apparently small, the ERM model was built on parameters with higher statistical significance (a = 0.093 0.008, P < 0.001; b = 0.978 0.006, P < 0.001) than those of the Michaelis-Menten model [Vmax = 0.114 0.019 mol Si ml1 hour1, P = 0.002; Michaelis constant (Km) = 44.876 23.934 M Si, P = 0.120]. The a parameter of the ERM model is the exact conceptual equivalent of the Vmax in the Michaelis-Menten model, indicating a maximum velocity of DSi utilization of 0.093 0.008 mol Si ml1 hour1. Likewise, the exact ERM equivalent of the Km parameter (i.e., the DSi concentration at which half-saturation or half Vmax is achieved) can also be calculated as [DSi] = log 0.5/log b, after having replaced in the ERM equation consumption rate = 0.5a. It yields a value of 31.16 M, revealing comparatively low affinity for the DSi in this sponge species (see Fig. 3).

(A) The kinetics of V. pourtalesii is compared against all other sponge species investigated to date (13, 15, 16, 18), which were demosponges with Michaelis-Menten kinetics. For relevant physiological comparison, DSi consumption rates were normalized to ash-free dry weight (AFDW), which represents essentially the organic component of the sponge that could be involved in silicification. The DSi consumption kinetics of V. pourtalesii, which does not follow a Michaelis-Menten model, is among the less efficient, except for that characterizing a group of slow-growing species in the genus Axinella. (B) A zoom on the graph within the range of natural DSi concentrations illustrates how V. pourtalesii is also less efficient than most demosponges at low DSi availability.

We tested the predictions of the developed kinetic model against empirical determinations of DSi consumption and BSi production rates in field conditions. Using five custom-manufactured methyl methacrylate chambers incorporating two ROV-operated seawater collectors, we incubated four sponge individuals and a control chamber under natural settings (Fig. 1, B to D, and movies S1 and S2). Incubations were conducted in the densest sponge aggregations of both the Sambro Bank Sponge Conservation Area and LaHave Basin (fig. S1) at depths of ~160 to 185 m, respectively, for periods varying from 19 to 28 hours, and at an average DSi concentration of 15.56 0.68 M. Individuals of different sizes were assayed (64, 126, 323, and 492 ml in volume; table S3), so that a relatively wide range of the size spectrum in the natural population was considered (all but very small or very large sponges). In situ consumption rates ranged from 0.007 to 0.034 mol Si ml1 hour1, averaging 0.024 0.012 mol Si ml1 hour1. This average consumption was markedly similar to the one predicted (0.027 0.006 mol Si ml1 hour1) by the laboratory kinetics at a DSi concentration of 15.56 M, falling within the 95% confidence range of the model (Fig. 2B).

We also estimated the rate at which BSithat is, the siliceous skeletonwas produced by the sponges under natural conditions to compare BSi production rates to DSi consumption rates obtained both from the in situ incubations and the predictions of the laboratory kinetic model. The recovery of two moorings that were immersed for 15 and 58 months brought up sponges that had settled on them, making the approach possible (Fig. 1, G and H; Materials and Methods). The two largest sponges on the mooring deployed for 15 months were about 14 months old, 1.4 and 2.9 cm in height, 1 and 3 ml in body volume, and 0.03 and 0.11 g in BSi content, respectively. The three largest sponges on the mooring deployed for 58 months were about 54 months old and ranged from 10 to 13 cm in height, 100 to 158 ml in volume, and 3.5 to 8.3 g in BSi content. These data indicated that skeletal BSi was produced at a rate threefold higher (0.056 0.008 mol Si ml1 hour1) during the first 14 months of life than in subsequent years (0.019 0.004 mol Si ml1 hour1), a growth pattern also known from other aquatic invertebrates (26). When the data from all five individuals were pooled together, an average BSi production rate of 0.033 0.021 M Si ml1 hour1 emerged. Again, this value fell within the 95% confidence range of the model prediction (0.029 0.007 M Si ml1 hour1) at a DSi availability of 16.93 M (Fig. 2B), which is the average DSi concentration in the bottom water on the central Scotian Shelf (table S4), as measured during a 20-year monitoring program (27). The general agreement among the rates of Si utilization predicted by the kinetic model, those measured through in situ incubations and those derived from the BSi production in field conditions, indicates consistency in the responses of the sponges in different situations, confirming that laboratory experiments are a suitable proxy for DSi utilization. It also suggests that, approximately, all consumed DSi (at least at natural ambient concentrations) becomes BSi production.

The DSi consumption kinetics of V. pourtalesii reaching optimal utilization at about 150 M DSi suggests that the natural population suffers from chronic DSi limitation, as mean DSi availability in the bottom water of the central Scotian Shelf averages only 16.93 8.65 M (table S4). Concentrations larger than 50 M have not been measured at any depth in the North Atlantic (17). A comparison of the DSi utilization kinetics known for sponges to date (Fig. 3) indicates that V. pourtalesii is comparatively less efficient in DSi consumption than all demosponges but Axinella spp. This suggests that to build and maintain the highly silicified skeletons characterizing hexactinellid sponges, they may need continuous exposure to DSi levels higher than those characterizing the modern photic ocean [<10 M; (1)]. The question remains, however, as to why the DSi consumption system of these sponges persists largely maladapted, unable to evolve in response to a shrinking DSi availability that started in the oceans at least 60 million years (Ma) ago (19, 28) or even earlier (29).

To elucidate why hexactinellid sponges are particularly inefficient when using DSi at the relatively modest concentrations of the modern ocean, we attempted to activate and identify in V. pourtalesii (see Materials and Methods) the Si transporters potentially involved in the process of both DSi uptake and its internal transport. To this end, we quantified gene expression in six of the sponge individuals that had been exposed to progressive DSi enrichment (from 12 to 250 M DSi) during the kinetic experiment, as indicated in the Ex situ incubations for kinetics of DSi consumption section. Their gene expression was contrasted with that of six individuals not exposed to any DSi enrichment but to the natural (12 to 17 M DSi) concentration (hereafter referred to as control individuals). The set of treated individuals (hereafter referred to as DSi-enriched individuals) consisted of the sponges #3, #4, #5, #7, #9, and #10 used in the kinetic experiment (as indicated in Fig. 2A).

A de novo reference transcriptome was obtained after pooling the reads from the 12 sponge libraries, and its resulting summary metrics (table S5) showed it to be well assembled and with very high BUSCO completeness scores (95.1% of the eukaryotic cassette and 87.3% of the metazoan cassette). In the DSi-enriched individuals, 597 genes were differentially up-regulated relative to the control group, of which 269 had a BLAST hit against the RefSeq and 197 against Swiss-Prot databases (fig. S2 and data file S1). In the control, 980 genes were found up-regulated when compared with the DSi-enriched individuals (fig. S2 and data file S1). Among the genes up-regulated in the DSi-enriched individuals, only 131 (33%) had a gene ontology (GO) term annotation. Identified overexpressed genes in the DSi-enriched individuals belonged to a wide array of functional categories (fig. S3 and table S5). We identified abundant transmembrane transport and vesicle-mediated transport categories, as well as responses to stress, lipid metabolism, and mRNA processing, among others in the Biological Process category. In addition, certain molecular functions were up-regulated, such as lysosome-related genes (e.g., solute carriers and cathepsins among others), transporter activity, chitin binding, and oxidoreductase activity (Fig. 4A and fig. S3). Indirect evidence indicates that silicification in sponges is a complex, energy-consuming biological process (10, 12). Therefore, up-regulation of multiple gene pathways not directly related to Si utilization was not unexpected. For our study, we focused only on those genes that had previously been demonstrated in the preexisting literature of other organisms as being involved either in Si transport or in Si polymerization. This circumvents the need to carry out further unrealistic heterologous expressions or knockout experiments with V. pourtalesii, a deep-sea animal for which any subsequent gene functionalization would require additional unaffordable economic and logistic transnational investments for additional experimental work with live individuals.

(A) Heatmap of the genes putatively related to silicon (Si) utilization and ion transporters. Relative expression was obtained from normalized expression levels using trimmed mean of M-values (TMMs) of potential target genes in biomineralization. Genes DE are shown in red bold letters. (B) Normalized expression levels using TMMs of genes known to be involved in Si processing in sponges or other organisms. Asterisks indicate DE genes with statistical significance between the two groups of individuals (DSi-enriched group versus control group) following the criterion of at least twofold expression and a P value corrected by false discovery rate (FDR) of 0.001. SD, standard deviation.

We found two homologs of the gene glassin, which code for the only silicifying protein identified in hexactinellids to date (22). Unexpectedly, only glassin 1 was slightly up-regulated (see Discussion) but not differentially expressed (DE), with its expression level in the DSi-enriched group being barely twofold that of the control group (Fig. 4). Silicatein genes, which are members of the cathepsin family of cysteine proteases and code for the silicifying enzyme of demosponges, had occasionally been reported from hexactinellids (30, 31). However, no silicatein sequences were found in V. pourtalesii, a result consistent with the growing suspicion that initial reports of silicatein in hexactinellids were either contamination from demosponge samples or misidentified cathepsin-like proteins not involved in the silicification (22, 32).

Two gene groups of transmembrane proteins related to Si transport (aquaporins and ArsB) were up-regulated in the DSi-enriched individuals. Aquaporins are ancient channel proteins that facilitate bidirectional passivebut relatively selective (33)flux of water and/or small noncharged solutes across membranes and that are present in all kingdoms of life (34). The overexpressed aquaporins consisted of three genes (Figs. 4 and 5A). One of the V. pourtalesii protein sequencesaquaporin 3likeshowed high similarity to aquaglyceroporin 3 of chordates, a second oneaquaporin 9likewas more similar to the aquaglyceroporin 9 of chordates, while a third oneaquaporin 3/9likehad equal sequence similarity to both aquaglyceroporin 3 and 9. Only this later aquaglyceroporin 3/9 showed a much higherand statistically significantoverexpression in the DSi-enriched individuals (Fig. 4). Aquaglyceroporins 3 and 9 are known to be major intrinsic proteins that function in chordates as passive channels facilitating a Si inflow from the intercellular medium into cells (35).

(A) Phylogenetic hypothesis of aquaporin protein family relationships and (B) low-silicon (Lsi2) and arsenite-antimonite (arsB) efflux transporters, which are also related to the protein family pink-eyed dilution (PED) transporters. In both cases, phylogenetic trees were obtained with ML, and the topology was congruent with that obtained from a Bayesian inference analysis. Therefore, posterior probabilities from the Bayesian inference were mapped on the nodes. Only bootstrap values more than 70 and posterior probabilities more than 0.90 are shown on the nodes. Accession numbers and contig names are in parentheses. Names in blue are new data from this study.

In a maximum likelihood (ML), noncomprehensive, phylogenetic analysis of the aquaporin protein family, which produced a tree topology with 100% congruence to that of an alternative Bayesian approach, four main clades were obtained (Fig. 5A and fig. S4): (i) one containing the aquaglyceroporins 3, 7, and 9 as well as the plant nodulin26 transporters (NOD26) and Lsi1 sequences from plants, which are all involved in passive transport of silicic acid, glycerol, and possibly water to the cells; (ii) a clade containing plasma membrane intrinsic (PIP) and tonoplast intrinsic (TIP) aquaporins, involved in water, glycerol, and ammonia transport; (iii) a clade containing aquaporin 8 (present in some sponges but not in hexactinellids) and small basic intrinsic proteins (SIP), mediating water, ammonia, and urea passive flow; and (iv) a clade of several aquaporins and PIPs involved in water transport (Fig. 5A). Only the first clade, recovering aquaglyceroporins 3, 7, and 9, showed robust nodal support.

The three V. pourtalesii aquaglyceroporin sequences involved in DSi transport also clustered (with statistical significance) with other unnamed aquaporins that we have recovered from the transcriptome of the hexactinellid Rosella fibulata and several demosponges, including both silicifying (i.e., Lubomirskia baikalensis, Cliona varians, and Petrosia ficiformis) and nonsilicifying species (i.e., Dendrilla antarctica and Ircinia fasciculata; see Discussion), collectively forming a robust sponge clade (Fig. 5A and fig. S1). While demosponges had a single member of this aquaporin clade (3, 7, and 9), hexactinellids showed expansion into three members (Fig. 5A), which could be the result of gene duplication and initial subfunctionalization for improved Si transport (see Discussion).

The other gene group related to Si utilization that was differentially overexpressed in the DSi-enriched individuals were arsB- and/or Lsi2-like genes (Figs. 4 and 5B), members of a superfamily of active ion transporters (Na+/H+ antiporters) that mediate a selective efflux of metalloids from the cytoplasm. The independent discovery of the arsB genesinitially described from bacteria as for transmembrane transporters of arsenic (36) and other metalloids (37)and the Lsi2 (low silicon 2) genes (38, 39)first identified in plants, as coding for transmembrane transport of Si and other metalloidsfavored two different gene denominations (i.e., arsB versus Lsi2). This historical nomenclature still persists despite these genes showing clear sequence orthology and strong similarity in function (see Discussion). Two arsB/Lsi2 genes (herein referred to as arsB 1 and arsB 2) were found differentially overexpressed in V. pourtalesii (Fig. 4). ArsB genes also occur in the demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica and are known in several silicifying eukaryotes (Fig. 5B and fig. S4), including diatoms, radiolarians, and choanoflagellates (23). These eukaryotic versions of Lsi2 and arsB genes also show sequence similarity to the prokaryotic arsenic transporters (Fig. 5B). In our phylogenetic hypothesis for the evolution of arsB/Lsi2 transporter proteins, in which the ML and the Bayesian approaches showed complete tree topology congruence (Fig. 5B), four main subclades were recognized among the arsB/Lsi2 proteins: (i) one consisting of the arsB homologs of bacteria, with a single arsB domain; (ii) another large clade composed by the homologs of diatoms and plants, with the diatom sequence containing a CitMHS domain [citrate-Mg2+:H+(CitM)-citrate-Ca2+:H (CitH) symporter] and the plant homologs both Nhab and arsB domains; (iii) a small clade containing the Lsi2-like homologs of choanoflagellates, which only have an arsB domain; and (iv) a large clade containing the animal homologs of arsB/Lsi2, with a single CitMHS and one or several transmembrane domains.

Of note, SITs, which are sodium-coupled transmembrane proteins operating as active silicic acidspecific transporters in a variety of unicellular silicifying eukaryotes (23), such as diatoms, choanoflagellates, and haptophytes, were absent in V. pourtalesii, in agreement with other studies on sponge genomes (23). Related silicon transporterlike genes (SIT-Ls), occurring in some metazoans such as annelids, copepods, and tunicates (23), were also absent. Likewise, the singular active Si transporter of vertebrates, solute carrier transporter Slc34a2 (40), was also absent. The NBC (Na+/HCO3) transporter, which was tentatively suggested to be involved in cotransporting DSi in the demosponge Suberites domuncula (24), was present in the transcriptome of V. pourtalesii (TRINITY_DN38500_c0_g1_i1) but not up-regulated by DSi enrichment, a response that does not support a direct involvement in DSi transport in this hexactinellid sponge.

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The Evolution of Visual Representation in Architecture (and How It Will Continue to Change) – ArchDaily

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

The Evolution of Visual Representation in Architecture (and How It Will Continue to Change)

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According to Howard Gardner, human intelligence can be classified into 8 different categories. One of these is spatial intelligence, which describes the ability to mentally create and imagine three-dimensional spaces. Architecture is one of many disciplines that benefits from this ability and in this article we will explore just how visual representation in architecture has evolved throughout history--from displaying the most brilliant of ideas to capturing the wildest of dreams.

Visual representation ultimately serves to bring an idea out into the open and to allow others to experience it. For centuries, architects have used and invented a variety of techniques to illustrate their ideas. What was once achieved with ink and paper is now done so with computers and virtual reality.

In the 15th century, Italian architect Filippo Brunelleschi combined mathematics with his own artistic mental projections of architecture to create linear perspective, a concept that, to this day, is taught in architecture, art, and design classes around the world.

Linear perspective is the foundation for illustrating a completed project before the construction has even started. For the designer, the possibilities are limited only by their own imagination, not even the laws of physics or Vitruvius need be applied. A prime example of this was tienne-Louis Boulle, who rejected the Vitruvian notion that architecture was the art of building. Instead, Boulle argued that, in order to execute, it is first necessary to conceive." Conceive he did, as one of his most famous works was a spherical cenotaph dedicated to Isaac Newton, measuring 152 m in diameter and resting on a cylindrical base. Unfortunately, the structure was never built, but was brought to life by Boulle's many renderings and models.

In this sense, and many others, all images share this component of architecture. Perhaps because architecture, in essence, symbolizes the luxury of emblematic public buildings and the homes of the wealthy, its only natural that the grandiosity of those who imagined these spaces comes through in images.

In this sense, it's interesting how Piranesi artistically illustrated the atmosphere found in prisons that, while lacking in the magnificence of other spaces, provided ample inspirationforsomeone who could imagine a different world within their walls. His "imaginary prisons" would come to be some of his most defining works.

Centuries later,drawings would be the gateway for Frank Lloyd Wright to enter the architectural profession after graduating from university. The renowned American architect was known for his hand-drawn visualizations that proved to be extremely close to reality once built.

A short time after, the German architect Helmut Jacoby, one of the foremost exponents of architectural visualization, created precise illustrations of interior and exterior spaces using a wide of array of techniques and tools, including rapidographs and airbrushes. Some of his illustrations came so close as to mimic the digital renderings of computers.

With the rapid advances in technology as well as trends, architectural rendering not only evolved in terms of technique, but also concept. In the 1960s, other radical schools of thought like Archigram, Superstudio, and Archizoom aired their criticisms of the methods used in design and architecture, saying that the current renderings more closely resembled comics than architectural publications.

One of the means of representation born out oftheseever-changing techniques and schools of thought was the collage. The principle of this technique was an image comprised of cut-outpiecesof different origins, all combined to create a photo montage.

It wouldn't be until the use of computers in design and 3D modelling, that architectural rendering would begin to use many of the tools that had been added to the realms of cinema, photography, and video games. Today, advances in CGI have brought architectural visualization into the realm of hyper-realism.

Thanks to the newest trends, architectural rendering is heading increasingly towards Virtual and Augmented Reality, which depend on multi-sensory devices that allow users to enter and explore every facet of an architectural model. It is perhaps as close as we are ever going to get to being able to enter the mind ofa project's creator; however, the simpler methods of pencil and paper and photo montages continue to be the tried and true methods of even the most recognized of architectural firms. It might even be safe to say that the artisticmethods of yesterday will never really die, but simply accompany the technological vanguard that continuously shapes how we design and dream.

This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic: Visualizations. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Learn more about our monthly topics here. As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.

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The Evolution of Visual Representation in Architecture (and How It Will Continue to Change) - ArchDaily

Evolution of Bharatanatyam – The Hindu

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Although there is no evidence of a linear evolution of Bharatanatyam over the last 2,000 years, Tamil and Sanskrit texts confirm its ancient roots. Scholars Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan and late Dr. V. Raghavan have traced the dance style to Ekaharya Lasyanga, a solo performance depicting themes of love and relationships, mentioned in the Sanskrit text Natyasastra (2BC-2AD).

Between 2BC-9AD, referred to as the Second Period in the history of dance by Dr. Kapila, the first being the prehistoric period, she observes the centrality of dance in society. Had it not been so widely prevalent and popular, it is inconceivable that a monumental treatise like the Natyasastra could be compiled, reasons Dr. Kapila. According to her there is sculptural evidence of the technique of human movement followed by this style from 5 AD, and of the ardhamandali stance with bent knees turned outward, common to classical styles (margi) across India, from 10 AD.

To the traditional sculptural motifs of a tree, woman, yaksha and yakshini, etc, dance was introduced. Reliefs of Bharhut, Sanchi, Amravati, Nagarjunakonda, Ellora, etc. and mural paintings in Bagh Caves, Ajanta, Ellora, Sitanavasal, etc, present yakshas and yakshinis in dance poses alongside dance scenes and orchestras. Sanskrit literature of the classical period, kavyas, natakas, epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, too featured dance.

Sculptures depicting the various karanas at Brihadeeswarar temple in Thanjavur

Little before and during the second period, Dr. Kapila says that Sanskrit influenced the intellectual and artistic life of people across the country. It is interesting how an authoritative commentary on the Natyasastra written in Kashmir by Abhinavagupta (9th-10thC) reached all over India, just as karanas from the Natyasastra were found carved in the 11th c Brihadeeswara temple in the South.

At the First Dance Seminar, 1958, organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, Dr. Raghavan presented a detailed paper, Bharata Natya. In it he said that he found productions of Natyasastra treatises at different centres where kings came into prominence, thus showing the countrywide cultivation of this art. Lasya, the art of the Nati, flourished in the two main venues where it was patronised, the temple and the court, and in other public and domestic venues on social and festive occasions.

As dance spread to different parts of the country, regional influences were added and Desi Lasyangas evolved. Dr. Raghavan made a comparative study of the Sadir repertoire and the contemporary Bharatanatyam repertoire, the margam, formalised by the Thanjavur Brothers in the early 19th Century. A pre-Thanjavur Quartet repertoire of a solo Nati or Nartaki from Sangita Muktavali (15 C) featured: Pushpanjali, Mukhacaali, Suddha-Yati nrtta, Raagaanga- Yati-nrtta, Sabdanrtta, Rupa-nrtta, dance and abhinaya to songs in dance-dramas (Rupakas), Dhvaada, Sabdacaali, Sudasabda, Sudagita, various Gita-prabandhas, followed by local dances like Cindu, Daru, Dhrupad, etc.

Dance Karanas seen at Sri Kumbeswara temple in Kumbakonam.

The first three Pushpanjali, Mukhacaali, Suddha-Yati nrtta, made up the familiar invocatory rituals, Melaprapti, now out of practice; Alarippu may be traced to the first Desi Lasyanga, Caali, mentioned in the Sangita Ratnaakara, and to Pushpanjali, Sabhavandana and Mukhacaali. The next, Jatisvara, was a descendant of Raganga-Yatinrtta, a combination of raga and yati, denoting tala. The third, Sabda or Salamu, originally sung in Khambodi raga in praise of a deity or hero, maybe considered a North-South link, just like the Tillana. The Sabda, mentioned in older texts, was also called Kavitva, which morphed into the Tamilised Kavuttuvam. Following this in the repertoire, is the Varna or Swarajati, padas and Tillana, ending with a Sloka from the Amarusataka, Krsnakarnaamrta, a navarasa sloka, etc. The Tillana may be traced to one of the limbs of Prabandha compositions Paata, which is fitted with rhythmic syllables of instruments.

Dr. Raghavans research found that the Sthaana-Caari-Mandala-Karana-Angahaara chain mentioned in older texts could be equated to todays Adavu-Korvai-Tirmaana sequence. He found Kuttana-Adavu classifications in Sangita Saaramrta by King Tulaja (1763-1787), in which the Sanskrit names and the Telugu-Tamil equivalent are mentioned. Some adavus are known, such as Samapada Kuttana as Tattadavu, Santaadya-paarsni-Kuttana as Tatti-mettadavu, etc., but not all.

Lesser known is the antiquity of Tamil literature which can confirm Dasinatyam or Sadirs roots. Silappadhikaram (5th-6thC) is considered a treasure, with one canto Arangetruk-kaadhai dedicated to dance; Dr. Raghavan, Dr. Kapila and Lakshmi Viswanathan have analysed this in detail. Tamil research scholar Professor Dr. S. Raghuraman argues that although Silappadhikaram is an important reference, it is not the first reference to dance in Tamil literature. According to him, grammar texts that included details related to dance predated the Natyasastra. Ahaththiyam, a text on grammar for literature, music and dance, for which manuscripts are not available, predated the available Tholkappiam (5 BC). Tholkappiam is a book on Tamil grammar that presents koothu (dance) as a special-occasion community activity and analyses emotions in Aham (love) literature with concepts of abhinaya theory such as ashta rasa, eight basic emotions, as also natyadharmi and lokadharmi, stylised and realistic presentation. In other texts such as Panchamarabu (approx 9 C), words like Natyam, denoting dance with music and poetry, nrittam, 108 karanams, sounds used in Koothu, Ta, Ti, Tho, Ki, Ikk (followed today in dance and percussion), the basic stances, pada bhedas (foot movements), hand gestures (kais), nine basic emotions (navarasas), and the movements for the emotions, the dance arena (aranga illakkanam) and the stick used to keep time measure (pirambu illakkanam), are mentioned. Professor Raghuraman has further referenced Koothanool, Bharatasenapatiyam, Tamil epics and other ancient texts, in this regard.

After the tenth century, Bharatanatyam seems to have developed chiefly in the South around what is now known as Tamil Nadu, says Dr. Kapila. She believes that despite solo dance being a part of the Bhagavata Mela Natakams, it can be assumed to have had an independent existence as a derivative of Natyasatras Ekaharya Lasyanga; the argument being that as a classical art form, whether presented in temples or courts, it had the same technique.

If there are questions about the authenticity of the Bharatanatyam technique, King Tulajas book confirms the evolution of adavus. They were likely refined by the Thanjavur Brothers less than fifty years later.

There was however a break in continuity in the art form in the 19th century. Dr. Kapila rues that the invaluable oral family tradition of the masters, known as Sampradayas, across different styles of classical Indian dance, were not recognised by the British system of education and those who were schooled during the 19 C were isolated from the art traditions of the country. Then came the ban on temple dancing in the Madras Presidency in 1910. She says, Temple dancing was forbidden but the devotees of the art continued to practise it in the seclusion of their homes. Apparently, the art had died by the 20th century and what could be seen of it was only a diluted, almost degenerate form of what was known as Nautch in the North and Sadir in the South... '

The pillars inside Koothambalam in Kerala depict the 108 Karanas or basic dance postures containing in Natya Shasthra. (

From the 1920s, revivalist E. Krishna Iyer, Kalyani Daughters, Kum. Bharati and others brought awareness to the tradition. With patriotism as a backdrop, the social stigma connected to the art form reduced. Devadasis, the traditional repositories, came out to present their art, and chief among them was the legendary T. Balasaraswathi. Young dance masters from temple towns of the South came to Madras and trained girls from non-devadasi communities, ushering a new cultural order.

What of the dance style itself? Lakshmi Viswanathan sums up the re-named Bharatanatyam, It was not the ritual dance of the temple. Rather it was a smart re-invention of the court dance of the nineteenth century, structured by the nattuvanars who had come to live in Madras.

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Evolution of Bharatanatyam - The Hindu

Tracing the evolution of vertebrate teeth – Cosmos

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

The fossil skull of Radotina, one of the most primitive jawed vertebrates with teeth; front view (left), left side (top right) and right side (bottom right). Credit: Vt Luk/ National Museum, Prague

The evolutionary roots of teeth and dermal jawbones (cheekbones), the precursor to vertebrate jaws as we know them today, may be older than previously thought.

That information comes thanks to some very modern technology and some very old fossils with surprisingly modern-looking teeth.

Using synchrotron microtomography, a team of Swedish, Czech, French and UK researchers led by Swedens Uppsala University took a detailed look at a collection of 400-million-year-old fossils of acanthothoracids an early fish group closely related to the very first jawed vertebrates found near the Prague Basin in the Czech Republic a century ago.

These have been difficult to study by conventional means because the bones cannot be freed from the enclosing rock, but the new imaging technology, which uses intensely bright and laser-like X-rays given off by electrons accelerated to near the speed of light, was able to visualise their internal structure in 3D without harming them.

Follow-up scans at higher resolution taken at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France allowed the researchers to visualise the growth pattern and even the perfectly preserved cell spaces inside the dentine.

The results were truly remarkable, including well-preserved dentitions that nobody expected to be there, says Valria Vakaninov, lead author of a paper in the journal Science.

The first vertebrates were jawless, but vertebrates now exhibit a variety of teeth and jaws that differ greatly across species in form and function. How and when this transition happened is poorly understood, however.

The work by Vakaninov and colleagues suggests the jaws and teeth of acanthothoracids, and the way their teeth grew, shared more similarities with bony fish, sharks and even land animals than another early fish group, the arthrodires. Acanthothoracid dentitions are attached to jaw bones, as in bony fish and land animals.

These findings change our whole understanding of the origin of teeth, says co-author Per Ahlberg.

Even though acanthothoracids are among the most primitive of all jawed vertebrates, their teeth are in some ways far more like modern ones than arthrodire dentitions. Their jawbones resemble those of bony fish and seem to be directly ancestral to our own.

Cosmos is a quarterly science magazine. We aim to inspire curiosity in The Science of Everything and make the world of science accessible to everyone.

Theres never been a more important time to explain the facts, cherish evidence-based knowledge and to showcase the latest scientific, technological and engineering breakthroughs. Cosmos is published by The Royal Institution of Australia, a charity dedicated to connecting people with the world of science. Financial contributions, however big or small, help us provide access to trusted science information at a time when the world needs it most. Please support us by making a donation or purchasing a subscription today.

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Tracing the evolution of vertebrate teeth - Cosmos

‘The Old Guard’ and the Evolution of Charlize Theron – Hollywood Reporter

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Therons current position as an action star while already being a celebrated, Oscar-winning actress in her 40s is unconventional. But it is also fitting for an actress known, even in her dramatic roles, for taking on unconventional characters that push against Hollywoods attempts at typecasting and hang-ups about age and glamour. Even during her emergence as an action star, Theron diversified her resume with leading roles in Tully (2018), Long Shot (2019) and Bombshell (2019), each as important to showcasing the versatility and complexities of strong women as her action roles. While Therons distinguished filmography and Oscar win for Monster (2003) certainly helped her gain a foothold in the action genre, it was still an uphill struggle when compared to Hollywoods leading men.

There is no single route for an actor to take in order to become a successful action star in Hollywood, but it should come as no surprise that men have dominated that space with even their misfires becoming victories in the overall scope of their success stories. Actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Dolph Lundgren, were largely immune to negative reviews at the height of their action-star fame, with acting often serving as a secondary attribute to their musculature and personas. Stallone was adopted into the genre, his acclaim for the serious dramatic roles of Rocky Balboa and John Rambo, which drew comparisons to Marlon Brando, served as a launchpad for international acclaim and a physical transformation geared towards action stardom. Tom Cruise, Will Smith, and Keanu Reeves became synonymous with the genre due to their charisma as leading men, despite their notable work outside of the action genre. And more recent stars like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Vin Diesel, and Jason Statham have turned their personas into an industry of their own, balancing the brawn of action movies past with the high-concepts and special effects of present-day blockbusters. Theres not a single one of those aforementioned stars, who form a sort of old guard of their own, who wasnt given the opportunity to fail numerous times and still retain their place, not only in the genre they made a home in, but in star vehicles outside of the action genre as well.

Although she had dabbled in action elements in Reindeer Games (2000) and The Italian Job (2003), Therons first action film, came on the heels of her Oscar-nominated role of Josey Aimes in Niki Caros North Country (2005). on Flux (2005), based on the cult MTV animated show, had all the makings of a strong sci-fi film, and could have been a notable success story for women filmmakers, about a decade before the strong, and still current, push for inclusion in Hollywood. Unfortunately, Paramount Pictures took the film out of director Karyn Kusamas hands, resulting in a critical and financial disappointment with interesting ideas never brought to fruition and a lead performance never given a true chance to shine. The aftermath nearly dashed Kusamas directing career, though shes since bounced back, and Therons chances at action stardom, a space shed long wanted to be a part of.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Theron spoke on the lack of forgiveness allowed women in the genre, Unfortunately, the very sad truth of any film in the genre with a female lead, where they dont succeed, there is this mindset of, Well, if it doesnt work, you just dont touch it again. A lot of women dont get a second chance, but when men make these movies and fail miserably, they get chance after chance after chance to go and explore that againIts kind of like you get one chance, and if it doesnt work If you look at me, for instance, Fury Road came a good decade after on Flux. In that decade, Theron became an even bigger presence in Hollywood, balancing smaller films like In the Valley of Elah (2007), Young Adult (2011), and Dark Places (2015) with blockbusters like Hancock (2008), Prometheus (2012), and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012). And at the end of this decade of exploration, Furiosa emerged.

It's no stretch to say that Therons Furiosa supplanted Tom Hardys Mad Max as Fury Roads iconic antihero, and among film aficionados she became the years breakout character. The immediate positive response to Furiosa was reminiscent of the fandom surrounding Sigourney Weavers Ellen Ripley and Linda Hamiltons Sarah Connor. Theron brought a sense of mileage to Furiosa, battle-damage and a history that told the tale of a human struggle. In one the films defining scenes, a moment improvised by Theron, Furiosa falls to her knees in the sands of the wasteland, letting out a shriek that symbolizes the characters death and rebirth. Women action heroines are often noteworthy for their near invulnerability, Underworlds Selene (Kate Beckinsale), Resident Evils Alice (Milla Jovovich), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). But Therons action-film performances borrow from traits developed in her dramatic portrayals, like Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins Monster, in that the characters she helps create are vulnerable, sometimes painfully so. A career spent in fostering empathy, both onscreen and off, has enabled Theron to create action characters whose pain, anger, and exhaustion bleeds out of the screen and onto the audience.

With The Old Guard, director Prince-Bythewood works with an awareness of her lead actors strengths. She distinguishes Andy from Therons previous action characters by also showing an awareness of the kind of masculinity that has largely dictated action movies, and then subverting those expectations. At the beginning of the film, Theron is the only woman among her team of immortals consisting of Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), and Nicky (Luca Marinelli). None of these men, despite being skilled warriors, fit into the clichs of the male action hero. As a unit, the Old Guard is the antithesis of the Expendables of the 2010 film. The Old Guard includes male characters, two of whom are gay, defined by connections, desires, and humanity rather than larger-than-life personas cobbled together from famous characters of yesteryear. And Andy, as the teams leader, is never made out to be the matron or babysitter. Even when a new immortal Nile (KiKi Layne) joins their ranks, Andys journey doesnt become about accepting her maternal nature, but in finding a reason to go on living. At the same time, Andy isnt simply a case of a character who could otherwise be male cast as a woman. No, Andys experiences across time, her trauma from the Salem witch trials, her failed bonds of sisterhood, and fight to maintain control over her own body give her a distinctly female experience.

Whats fascinating about Therons role in The Old Guard, and her role in action films in general, is that there is nothing easy about the characters she plays. Beyond the physically demanding aspects, none of the action-movie characters Theron has taken on have been simplistic or entirely reliant on ass-kicking skills. While Furiosa, Cipher, Lorraine, and Andy all share a common trait of being guarded, not an easy quality to portray, the way in which Theron explores that quality and reveals the intentions of those characters manifests itself differently in each role. From the triumph of redemption, the sadistic pleasure of being the smartest one in the room, the icy calm of being able to play every angle, and the desire to be better even after thousands of years, Theron has crafted a robust repertoire of action characters reliant on the need of an actors persona to substitute for craft. In the past five years, Charlize Theron has helped set a standard of excellence for the roles of women in action films and its a legacy that hopefully is only just beginning.

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'The Old Guard' and the Evolution of Charlize Theron - Hollywood Reporter

The Triumphalism of Strickberger’s Evolution – Discovery Institute

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Editors note:Dr. Shedingeris a Professor of Religion at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He is the author of a recent book critiquing Darwinian triumphalism,The Mystery of Evolutionary Mechanisms.

Recently I acquired a copy of the fourth edition of Strickbergers Evolution (2008) from a retiring biology colleague. Edited and updated by Brian K. Hall and Benedikt Hallgrimsson, Strickbergers Evolution bills itself as the most broadly based textbook on evolution and a staple in undergraduate education in evolutionary biology.

But what will biology students actually learn from this textbook? On my reading, this textbook functions more as staple in indoctrination in Darwinian triumphalism than it does a staple in undergraduate education. In a series of posts, I hope to provide a critical review of many of the ways this textbook misleads students and fails to provide a foundation for real education, which must always present an accurate and nuanced picture of our current state of knowledge.

Here, I will point out several basic errors of fact to be found in Strickbergers Evolution. Any textbook must be rigorously fact-checked, lest the existence of clear errors undermine the credibility of all the information presented. Such a process seems not to have happened here. As one small example, Francis Galton is called Darwins first cousin in a discussion about eugenics. Of course, Galton was only Darwins half-cousin, having been born to a daughter of Erasmus Darwin who was a half-sister to Robert Darwin, Charless father.

Unlike many textbooks on evolution, Strickbergers Evolution includes a section called Belief, Religion, and Evolution. In it we read:

Until Copernicus and Galileo in the sixteenth century, no one had seriously challenged the idea of a powerful deity controlling the physical universe. In the new worldview they and others ushered in, however, God appeared as an initial creator rather than as an incessant manipulator of the universe. The advent of Darwinism posed further threats to Western religion by suggesting that biological relationships, including the origin of humans and of all species, could be explained by natural selection without the intervention of a god.

Here we see the often-repeated error viewing the Darwinian revolution as the fulfillment of the Copernican revolution, in which humans were systematically removed from the center of concern. But left out of the discussion is the inconvenient fact that Copernicus primary motivation for placing the sun at the center of the cosmos was religious. Copernicus had no empirical evidence compelling this move. The Ptolemaic system still worked and accounted for observations, though it had become aesthetically messy due to the addition of many ad hoc features.

Copernicus reasoned that the God he worshiped as the great Artisan would never have created such an aesthetically displeasing monstrosity. Placing the sun at the center created a simpler cosmos more in keeping with Copernicus theologically motivated aesthetic sensibilities, and this was his primary argument for why a heliocentric model must be correct.

A few pages later, this error is repeated:

The first significant cracks in the theological armor of continued divine intervention in nature were made in the discoveries of natural laws regulating the motion of the solar system, by Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler.

But, of course, the idea of divine intervention did not end with Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, for Isaac Newton would come along and become the closest thing in the 17th century to an advocate of intelligent design!

Hall and Hallgrimsson are biologists, not historians of science, so perhaps these errors can be excused. But what should we make of their statement, Natural selection acts because of the differential survival of individual organisms with particular features? Even a novice would know that natural selection is a term to describe differential reproduction, not survival. Survival means nothing if organisms with particular features fail to out-reproduce organisms lacking these features. But Hall and Hallgrimsson seem to double down on this error when they write, Biological evolution tracks opportunistic pathways, and is blind to destinations other than survival. But natural selection cannot track anything, and even if it could, it would track reproduction, not survival. Darwin may have focused on survival, but the focus on differential reproduction has been at the center of evolutionary theory at least since the advent of population genetics in the 1930s. As Thomas Kuhn once pointed out, scientists are often woefully ignorant of the historical development of their own subjects.

This is not the only instance of faulty understanding of basic aspects of evolutionary theory and its history. In a section titled Randomness of Mutation, Hall and Hallgrimsson write:

Until the 1950s, the accepted view among bacteriologists was that bacteria had a unique plastic heredity in which appropriate mutations arise as an immediate response to the needs of the environment.

Actually, the randomness of mutation had already become an article of faith by 1943 due to the famous fluctuation test of Salvador Luria and Max Delbrck, whose seminal Genetics paper (Mutations of Bacteria from Virus Sensitivity to Virus Resistance) doesnt make it into the textbooks bibliography. The randomness of mutation was very much an accepted fact within the biological establishment long before the 1950s.

Eventually, this idea was challenged in 1988 when John Cairns and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health reworked Luria and Delbrcks fluctuation test and claimed to find evidence for directed mutation. This was followed in the early 1990s by two papers by Barry Hall purporting to demonstrate anticipatory mutagenesis. But these complicating challenges to the randomness of mutation, published in such respected journals as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, and Genetics, are entirely ignored in the textbook.

Finally, in one grand statement of Darwinian triumphalism, Hall and Hallgrimsson write:

Darwins theory made it clear that species fixity was not natural. These radical ideas, which revolutionized biology, also affected sociology, anthropology, economics, politics, womens rights, fiction, poetry, linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, Alfred Tennyson, George Eliot, George Bernard Shaw, Henri Bergson, and Sigmund Freud are just a few of those who incorporated evolution into their studies, writings, politics, and world views.

The oversimplification here is staggering (Darwin and womens rights?!) and would take an entire book to unpack. At the very least, the late 19th and early 20th century eclipse of Darwinism (to borrow Peter Bowlers term) is ignored here. Lamarckian and vitalistic theories continued to be popular until the development of the evolutionary synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s. George Bernard Shaw was a harsh critic of Darwin, and in coining the term lan vital, Henri Bergson was certainly no friend of Darwinism. I suppose such historical inaccuracies are a small price to pay in service to Darwinian indoctrination. But this makes a mockery of the educational process. Students deserve better.

In upcoming posts, I intend to discuss Strickbergers Evolution on issues such as its portrayal of Darwin, its presentation of some of what Jonathan Wells calls the icons of evolution, its discussion of coevolution and the initial stages of variation, the meaning of convergent evolution, and a few additional items like eye evolution and selection in pre-biotic chemistry. If Thomas Kuhn was correct that science textbooks constitute initiations into currently reigning scientific paradigms that bleach the blemishes of complicated histories, then Strickbergers Evolution could stand as Kuhns paradigmatic example.

Image: Charles Darwin, by Francis Darwin (Ed.) / Public domain, 1891.

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The Triumphalism of Strickberger's Evolution - Discovery Institute

Theistic Evolution: The Case of Theodore Munger – Discovery Institute

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Theodore T. Munger, in 1913, by Benjamin Wisner Bacon / Public domain.

So-called theistic evolutionists, including Kenneth Miller, Karl Giberson, and the BioLogos crowd, seem to think they can take Darwinian evolution and insert all sorts of theistic propositions into it unamended. Thats interesting for a theory explicitly aimed at excluding theology. But such oxymoronic thinking is the hallmark of Darwinian theism. It has created all sorts of confusions, such as making Darwinism a synecdoche for science, and worse, falsely imputing ideas to people who never held them.

A case in point is the important 19th- and early 20th-century American theologian Theodore Munger (1830-1910). Munger, a leading voice for the New Theology that would increasingly make itself felt in America following the Civil War, had the qualities of piety and progressivism that allowed him to reconcile evolution with science and religion. Unfortunately, an opinion prevails that Mungers lasting legacy resides in his promotion of Darwinian evolution. According to the scope notes of his papers residing at Yale, Munger is remembered for his attempts to accommodate Christianity to Darwins theory of evolution. But, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

In the May 1886 issue of The Century Magazine, in an extensive article of more than 10,000 words, Munger tackled the problem of Evolution and the Faith. He puts the reader on early notice that his brand of evolution is very different from the evolution propounded twenty years ago. Furthermore, acceptance of evolution need not entail common assumptions and inferences frequently associated with it. Munger proceeds to make six significant propositions regarding evolution:

In the end, Mungers purpose in this essay it to show that evolution not only poses no threat to Christian faith but can confirm it by linking Gods creative powers and purposes to the organic operations of nature.

Positivism, and Mungers hostility to it, is extremely important when considering Darwinism. It was not necessary to insist upon Darwins principle of natura non facit saltum (nature does not make jumps) or even natural selection in order to be a Darwinist; what was crucial was some commitment to positivism. Mungers essay challenges all aspects of positivism and proposes a new and distinctly different version of evolution that is intrinsically theistic.

As might be expected, this view was quickly challenged. In the September 1886 issue of The Century, the Rev. Charles F. Deems, a Methodist minister from New York, accused Munger of conflating terms and providing a description of evolution contrary to most of its leading proponents. Where Munger used evolution, Deems insisted that he should have used development to avoid confusion. In fact, Deems points out that every time Munger holds fast to the faith, he is required to abandon evolution. But Munger tells his colleague, I do not consider it wise to yield the word to the school that first brought it into general use and put its own definition upon it. It is not a trade-mark; it is not private property; and I must so far disagree with my friend as to think that it has not been so exclusively used by one school, that it cannot properly be used by other schools.

But Deems had a point. If terms are used with such imprecision and multiple meanings, confusion is bound to arise. Nevertheless, Munger had every right to use the idea of organic change in nature as he saw fit. Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel and their allies did not own an exclusive trade-mark even if they acted as if they did.

Munger is exemplary of theistic evolution not Darwinian theism. In this sense he is closer to his contemporaries Alfred Russel Wallace and St. George Mivart, both of whom argued for intelligent evolution. So the next time you hear talk of theistic evolution, be sure to dig a little deeper. Darwinian theism e.g., as espoused by Miller, Giberson, BioLogos and theistic evolution are a confusion of terms. They are often not the same. Munger proves it.

In a post on Sunday Ill give an example of how this same erroneous attribution is committed against a well-known American scientist. Stay tuned.

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Theistic Evolution: The Case of Theodore Munger - Discovery Institute

EA Sports UFC 4 preview: The evolution of MMA – Shacknews

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

By the time EA Sports UFC 4 releases, it will have been two and a half years since EA Sports UFC 3. Connor McGregor sits proudly on the cover of that game, the runaway superstar of that era who cast such a large shadow nobody else could stand out.

Times have changed, though. McGregor is retired (again), and new superstars have emerged to lead MMA forward. In UFC 4, cover athletes Jorge Gamebred Masvidal and Israel The Last Stylebender Adesanya lead the way, and developer EA Vancouver looks to ride this wave with major presentation and gameplay overhauls in UFC 4.

The best and worst parts about previous UFC games was anyone could play, but the gap between the truly skilled and average player was huge. Those who mastered grappling and submissions dominated the rest. Perfecting the tiny details of those systems was more than the casual fan could be bothered with.

With UFC 4, EA Vancouver aims to make the systems more accessible to casual players, while still allowing those truly gifted video game face punchers to shine. This starts with dynamic striking controls with tap or hold button inputs, allowing players to throw quick strikes with a tap and more damaging strikes with a hold.

Both the clinch and takedown systems now utilize EAs RPM (Real Player Motion Technology) to determine how a situation plays out. Use locomotion to press or escape the clinch or drive your opponent towards the cage to complete a takedown. These new gameplay systems are backed up by a wide range of new transition animations for clinching, and new trips, throws, and powerful slams for takedowns. It paints a promising picture that some of the more clunky gameplay systems from past UFC games will be more fluid and accessible to the average player.

If you played enough UFC 3, there were probably times you found yourself in a submission attempt from your opponent and you just set the controller down. You were doomed. You knew you were facing someone who was skilled in submissions. The Damien Maia of video game MMA if you will. You had little chance to defend the submission, and even less chance to get up, assuming you remembered the controls to do so.

EA Vancouver looks to simplify both the grappling and submission systems with a grappling assist feature and two mini games for submissions, one for joints and one for chokes. With grappling assist, players can utilize the left stick to get up, attempt a submission, or engage in ground and pound. These new grapple control settings include a full grapple assist mode, a hybrid mode, and the legacy controls. Skilled players can keep doing what they did in previous iterations of the game, but casual players can utilize a simpler control scheme that makes the entire grappling experience less intimidating.

With submissions, there will be simpler mechanics that depend on keeping pace with your opponents movements instead of flicking the left stick in eight different directions within five seconds. The old way of performing or escaping submissions used to be frantic and twitchy, whereas the new system appears to flow naturally and allow for fluid movements to lock something in or defend. As someone who found the grappling and submission mini-games frustrating in past UFC titles, this is a change Im excited for.

Guess who the most popular fighter was in EA Sports UFC 3? Youre thinking McGregor, but it wasnt. The most popular fighter was the one you created, and EA Vancouver is using this information to give players more options for their fighter via their universal avatar system. This system makes your created fighter available in all weight classes, meaning if youre fighting at 135 pounds and want to take on Daniel Cormier at heavyweight, your created fighter can scale to that weight class. No need to make a new one.

Since this created fighter can follow you anywhere, theres a laundry list of new customization options, including new hairstyles, facial hair, tattoos, shorts, tops, gloves, and accessories. All these items, which have no impact on gameplay, will be unlockable through gameplay progression through your connected player profile that allows you to earn in-game rewards in any mode. Microtransactions are there if you choose to use them, but we were told that virtually everything was unlockable through gameplay. You can even step away from Reebok with your apparel, but only with your created fighter. Whos ready to wear some Pride gear?

The presentation overhaul continues with the new fighting environments players can enjoy. We all know that Kimbo Slice made backyard brawling famous, but UFC 4 co-cover athlete, Jorge Masvidal, has recently returned it to the spotlight. The BMF (Baddest Motherf*cker) champ started in back yards, and now you can brawl there too. This is in addition to the Kumite, an environment that pays homage to cinematic lore of MMA and combat sports, and the UFC Apex center where events have been held recently due to the ongoing pandemic. Unfortunately, we dont get a Fight Island at launch, but we do get an Action Avenue location meant to showcase the early stages of an MMA career.

When the action begins, wherever you choose to partake in it, expect to find a new camera angle thats lower than it was in UFC 3, as well as something EA Vancouver is called high impact movements. When you deliver a fight changing shot, expect to see and hear the devastation in slow motion, down to the ripples on a fighters face when they get cracked.

To round out what I would say are across-the-board presentation improvements, Daniel Cormier will step in for Joe Rogan and sit alongside Jon Anik in the broadcast booth. Rogans commentary has been widely criticized throughout the series, but it appears those challenges are a thing of the past. As someone who watches a metric butt load of MMA, if Cormier and Anik bring even a sliver of their chemistry to UFC 4, were all in for a treat.

As mentioned, the most popular fighter in UFC 3 was your created character. Well, the most popular mode was the career mode. Thankfully, it appears this mode has received a lot of love and should once again be a fan favorite.

Career mode will now feature a fighter evolution system that sees your moves improve in real time. If you throw a punch in an actual fight, youll earn progression that improves that punch, just like you would in training, which now includes a new sparring system that awards evolution points and upgrades attributes. These core changes will be complemented by the ability to watch tape, decline fighter offers and face the wrath of Dana White, and a social media system that will help you develop rivalries and build connections. There will even be a full WFA (World Fighting Alliance) league that players can start in.

Other game modes will make their return as well, including Fight Now for online and couch co-op play. Fight now itself has four modes, including MMA, Stand & Bang, KO Mode, and Custom Fight Now. There will also be an Online World Championship mode and, of course, UFC Ultimate Team. These are all good, but I suspect the most popular new mode will be Blitz Battles.

Blitz Battles will consist of a 64-player tournament that can be played with different rule sets, like MMA, Stand & Bang, KO Mode, and Dirty Boxing. These are short fights where only one person can remain. You win six fights in a row, and youre the Blitz Battles champion. Honestly, it reminds me of Ones from NHL 20, and thats not a bad thing in theory.

Ive enjoyed every UFC game from EA Sports over the last several years. Like most of you, I primarily used my created fighter in career mode, often avoiding the online play because I had no desire to invest in the convoluted grappling and submission systems. Watching UFC 4 gameplay, though, Im filled with hope and excitement that were about to get our hands on what could potentially be the best MMA game ever released. Time will tell, but everything I saw and outlined here today seemed like a step forward.

EA Sports UFC 4 will release on August 14, 2020 for the PS4 and Xbox One.

Bill, who is also known as Rumpo, is a lifelong gamer and Toronto Maple Leafs fan. He is known for his guide writing and, unsettlingly enough, enjoys grindingout in-depth collectible articles. Tweet him @RumpoPlays if you have a question or comment about one of his guides.

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EA Sports UFC 4 preview: The evolution of MMA - Shacknews

The evolution of Buck Farmer: From raw thrower to dean of Tigers’ bullpen – The Detroit News

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

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Detroit There was a minute there in the early stages of the quarantine when things got a little too weird for Tigers reliever Buck Farmer.

I mean, there I was, a big-league pitcher and I am playing catch in my backyard, he said in a Zoom session Wednesday. My neighbors came out and it was like, What is this guy doing? Mentally, it was kind of strange.

Fortunately, Joey Bart, a fast-rising catching prospect in the Giants organization, lives just a couple of miles away from his Farmer's home in Buford, Georgia.

I could call him up and ask if he wanted to play catch and hed say hed be over in five minutes, Farmer said, laughing. It was like asking my dad to go outside and play catch, like I had to ask permission or something Can I go play in the backyard?

Man, what are we doing?

Eventually he and Bart were able to move to a nearby high school field and throw off a mound. But the backyard flat-grounds werent the only thing Farmer has brought back from his youth.

Oh, you mean the mullet? Farmer said, showing his retro hairstyle. Its a childhood thing. I was shuffling though some pictures and I found a Christmas picture. Everyone is asking where the inspiration for the hair comes from, it was that Christmas picture when I was like 5years old the same exact style.

Tigers reliever Buck Farmer posted a career-low 3.72 ERA over 73 appearances last season.(Photo: Robin Buckson, Detroit News)

His hair may be a party in the back, but Farmer is all business where it counts. After years of toggling between Triple-A and Detroit, between starter and reliever, Farmer has emerged as one of the most durable and vital pieces of the Tigers bullpen.

He worked in 73 games last season, 67innings, and the importance of his late-inning setup role will be magnified by the condensed 60-game run this season.

Absolutely, he said. Its a sprint, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Its going to be 110% from Day One. Its going to bring a lot of fun to the game. The huge pressure situations are going to mean a lot more this year.

Not that they didnt before, but in a 60-game season, every situation carries a lot more weight.

Its hard to fathom that Farmer, 29, is the second longest-tenured Tigers player after Miguel Cabrera. Hes the old-head in the bullpen. After years of soaking up knowledge from the likes of Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, David Price and Anibal Sanchez, Farmer is the guy young relievers like John Schreiber, Nolan Blackwood and Bryan Garcia can lean on for advice.

Its a two-way street, really, Farmer said. I learn from them, too.

The message he most often imparts, though, is something he was told when he made his debut in 2014 respect hitters, but dont fear any of them.

The guy that steps into the box not taking any credit away from them but when you are on the mound, hes just another bat with a name, Farmer said. You cant give them too much credit. Its still a game of failure. If you get three hits in 10 at-bats youre going in the Hall of Fame. Ill take those odds.

When you are on the mound, you cant give those guys too much credit. You are here for a reason, dont lose sight of that.

If any of the young pitchers want to talk about analytics, though, they should probably seek out Matthew Boyd or Casey Mize.

Im super old-school when it comes to that, Farmer said. I do look at hitters charts, the hot zones and cold zones and stuff like that. Im not saying I dont use them at all. But Im not as heavy on it as a lot of other people.

Im one of those guys who, you can teach it all you want, but unless you can go out and execute that pitch, its pretty much useless information to you.

So what Farmer has done over the course of the last six years is lock in and refine the three pitches in his tool bag the heavy mid-90s fastball, an elite-level change-up and a sweeping slider-curve hybrid. He cut his walk percentage from 13.3 to 8.3 last season and was inducing a 53%swing-and-miss rate with his slider and a 31% whiff rate with his change-up.

Im trying some new things, he said after throwing an impressive live bullpen session on Monday. Trying to throw front-door breaking balls to right-handers and then throwing the other pitches off that same line.

When Farmer was still making spot starts and pitching in long relief, he attacked hitters with both a four-seam and a two-seam fastball. Hes taken the two-seamer out of the mix and last season used his four-seam just 49%of the time.

Nowadays, unless you are throwing 100 mph, especially in my situation coming in late in games, its one of those things where you have to mix, Farmer said. I mean, based on scouting reports, there are some guys you can be heavier in certain areas than others.

But in this day and age, with so many numbers available, if you are throwing 85% fastballs, guys are going to know that, and they are going to lock in on that.

Its been an impressive evolution from a raw, country hardball thrower to a heady, three-weapon pitcher. Off the mound, too. Farmer showed upin 2014, wide-eyed and quiet. Now hes married. He and wife Kayla have a daughter, Evelyn, and another child on the way.

So he had to weigh the risks to his family when he decided that he would come back and play despite the lingering threat of the coronavirus.

There is some concern, not only for my health but for my wife and little girl, Farmer said. But honestly, the way I see it and everyone is going to have their own opinion but theres not a whole lot of difference between putting my wife and child in a car and going to the store on a normal day. You are still taking that risk.

Thats just the way I see it. Everything you do in life poses a risk. Its how you go about it and try to minimize that risk. Thats what we try to do now.

When it came down to it, Farmer said there was no chance he wouldn't come back to play, especially after reviewing the safety protocols the league and the Tigers have put in place.

Yeah, I am in a clubhouse with 50-some other guys, he said. But I would much rather be here, in a controlled environment where I know if something happens to me or my wife, if we were to test positive, I know I have every resource available to contain it.

At home, Id be all on my own trying to find a hospital that could contain it. Coming back to play was a no-brainer for me.

And a big, full-bearded, mullet-headed perk for the Tigers' bullpen.

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @cmccosky

The rest is here:

The evolution of Buck Farmer: From raw thrower to dean of Tigers' bullpen - The Detroit News

The Emotional Evolution of Coronavirus Doctors and Patients – The New Yorker

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Beth saw her first dead body of the day just as she was leaving the emergency department. Earlier, shed admitted a patient with the coronavirus; now she was on her way to an upstairs doctors lounge to finish writing her notes. Standing by the elevators, lost in thought, she nearly missed the orange body bag as it was rolled out of the car that had just opened in front of her. She decided to take the next one.

Seconds later, another elevator opened behind her. She turnedout came two more stretchers, two more bodies. While she watched, every elevator in the bay opened its doors, expelling stretcher after stretcher of bodies. I felt surrounded, she said. Id never seen anything like it. I thought I might throw up.

An endocrinologist by training, Bethwhose name has been changed for this storyusually sees patients in an office; when she first volunteered to help on the wards, she was nervous. As the pandemic deepened, shed grown comfortable in her new role, or so shed thought. She turned to a junior colleague with whom shed been waiting. I knew I had to be brave, she said. I kept it together for her. Thinking back now, she recalls not just the orange bags but the young womans petrified face.

For many health-care workers, initial concerns about the rationing of ventilators, masks, and gloves have been replaced with the weighty recognition that the fight against COVID-19 is not a momentary disruption but a new way of life. More than a hundred and thirty-two thousand Americans have died of the virus, and the pandemic is still making its way across the country, with case counts spiking as states reopen. There are no game-changing treatments for the disease, and no vaccine. The pandemic will be sticking around for a while.

Even in normal times, health-care workers are at high risk for mental-health problems. Doctors commit suicide at twice the rate of the general population; a quarter of I.C.U. nurses have symptoms of P.T.S.D.; a third of residents show signs of depression; more than ten per cent of graduating medical students report having suicidal thoughts. For several years, Srijan Sen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan who studies the well-being of physicians, has been following medical residents in China, using an app that asks doctors there questions about their moods. Usually, as the Chinese New Year approaches, their collective mood improves; this year, when the pandemic cancelled celebrations, we saw a pretty concerning decline in mood and increase in depressive symptoms, he said.

Sens work is consistent with other recent research. A study of nurses and doctors caring for COVID-19 patients in China found that nearly three-quarters had experienced psychological distress; half reported symptoms of depression, and a third had difficulty sleeping. A preliminary study in Italy found that half of health-care workers there had symptoms of P.T.S.D. In April, these statistics became real for those in New Yorks medical community after two clinicians, an emergency physician and an emergency medical technician, died by suicide.

In his psychiatry practice, Sen cares for doctors struggling with mental health; these days, he works over Zoom. Theres an increase in concern for patients, a feeling of not being able to do as much as they normally would, Sen said. Then theres the added concern for themselves and their families. On one hand, they feel, This is why I became a doctor. On the other, its Im putting myself, my spouse, and my children at risk. In his prior work, Sen found that the prevalence and severity of mental-health issues varied from hospital to hospital. He believes that these disparities offer a lesson for this moment. My sense is that stress and anxiety will be worse in places where clinicians feel that leadership is more concerned with finances than with safety, or is not being upfront about masks and P.P.E., he told me. Ultimately, you want to know that your institution is behind you.

Since the pandemic started, Jonathan Kochav, a cardiology fellow in New York City, has cared for hundreds of critically-ill COVID-19 patients. He describes his emotional state as having progressed through three phases. They mirror what Ive heard from other doctors, and my own experience as a hospitalist working in coronavirus wards and I.C.U.s.

The first phase, which began as the virus started its explosive, relentless spread across the city, was imbued with excitement and fear. The excitement had to do with venturing into uncharted territory, unravelling the mysteries of a new virus and trying to subdue it. We were learning on the fly, but, just by being at the epicenter, we were soon among the worlds most experienced at treating this disease, Kochav said. The fearof losing his patients, his loved ones, his own lifewas equally unprecedented. When I was first treating COVID-19 patients, I knew I would get it, he continued. I knew my wife would get it. I had visions of her being intubated in an I.C.U. I was scared my parents would get sick and die. I thought about which hospital I would bring them to.

As it turned out, Kochav did get sick. So did his wife, who has also been treating people with COVID-19. The fear changed how he interacted with patients and their families. Dealing with family members was particularly emotional, he told me. I saw my fears coming true in what they were experiencing. I could so easily project myself into their position. A doctor can feel some distance from patients with chronic ailments, such as heart disease or diabetes. Not so with a virus that threatens to infect everyone.

As the weeks went on, Kochav experienced a gradual hardening: phase two. When youre exposed and exposed and exposed to something, it becomes less scary, he said. There was this desensitization and detachment. He noticed colleagues who had previously changed into street clothes before and after shifts departing the hospital in scrubs; some forgot to put on eye protection as they walked toward patient rooms, scurrying back to collect face shields. His own approach to patients began to shift. Everyone had the same disease; many fared poorly regardless of what he did; treatment became mechanical. I felt disconnected, he said. Im not sure if its because I overinvested earlier and was just emotionally spent, or because every day was an endless stream of the same thing. But I went from seeing every patient as my mom, my dad, my wife, to seeing every patient as a lab value and ventilator setting.

Others apparently felt the same way, because soon Kochavs I.C.U. developed a plan to restore humanity to its work. The unit began asking families to send in photos and double-sided sheets describing each patients life and interests. Some families wrote from the first-person perspective of the patienthe was introducing himself. Soon, I.V. poles were covered with paragraphs describing years past and laminated pictures of children, grandchildren, vacations, and graduations. Id go to check a patients ventilator settings and suddenly Id see their smiling face at a barbecue, Kochav said. Im caring for people again. He hopes this new, third phase will last.

Coronavirus patients go through phases, too. In early March, David and his partner, Emily, left the city with his sister and brother-in-law to stay on Long Island. (They asked me not to use their real names to protect their privacy.) David exercised six days a week and, at thirty-five, had never been seriously ill. When he woke up feeling unwell, he attributed his fatigue to a bad nights sleep. That evening, he entered the kitchen, where his sister was eating a sweet potato; overcome by nausea, he started up the stairs, then fainted, hitting his head on a railing and opening a gash above his left eyebrow.

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The Emotional Evolution of Coronavirus Doctors and Patients - The New Yorker

Legal Hold Software Market Predicted to Witness Sustainable Evolution in Years to Come | Zapproved, PageFreezer, Acuity Scheduling – Jewish Life News

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Latest released the research study onGlobal Legal Hold Software Market, offers a detailed overview of the factors influencing the global business scope.Legal Hold SoftwareMarket research report shows the latest market insights, current situation analysis with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services. The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of theLegal Hold Software Market. The study covers emerging players data, including: competitive landscape, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers.

Top players in Global Legal Hold Software Market are:

Zapproved LLC (United States),PageFreezer (Canada),Acuity Scheduling, Inc. (United States),Thomson Reuters Corporation (Canada),Exterro (United States),Cicayda, LLC (United States),Mitratech Holdings Inc. (United States),Nuix (Australia),Onit, Inc. (United States),OpenText Corporation (Canada)

Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/128357-global-legal-hold-software-market

Brief Overview on Legal Hold Software

Legal hold software helps in accomplishing the process of preserving any relevant information for any kind of pending litigation. Law firms use these legal hold software so as to streamline the process of issuing the litigation holds, interview of custodians, and monitoring the compliance with any issued legal holds, progress in track collection, and more. Legal hold software is also used for the purpose of sending notifications and reminders to the recipients of any legal hold requests and hence preserves the legal hold of documents. Ultimately, the goal of the legal hold software is the unchallengeable preservation of the documents that are relevant to any specific case.

To qualify for the inclusion in the Legal Hold category, a product must have certain specifications as:

The Global Legal Hold Software Market segments and Market Data Break Down are illuminated below:

Study by Application (Large Enterprises, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)), Deployment Type (In Premises, On Cloud), End-User (Legal Aid Consumers, Private Consumers, SMEs, Charities, Large Businesses, Government), Subscription Type (One Time, Yearly, Quarterly, Others)

Market Drivers

Market Trend

Market Challenges

Market Restraints:

Market Opportunities:

Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, Middle East & Africa

Country Level Break-Up: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, South Africa, Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Germany, United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Turkey, Russia, France, Poland, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand etc.

Enquire for customization in Report @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/128357-global-legal-hold-software-market

Analyst at AMA have conducted special survey and have connected with opinion leaders and Industry experts from various region to minutely understand impact on growth as well as local reforms to fight the situation. A special chapter in the study presents Impact Analysis of COVID-19 onGlobal Legal Hold Software Marketalong with tables and graphs related to various country and segments showcasing impact on growth trends.

Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global Legal Hold Software Market:

Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Global Legal Hold Software market

Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary the basic information of the Global Legal Hold Software Market.

Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Global Legal Hold Software

Chapter 4: Presenting the Global Legal Hold Software Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region 2013-2020

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Global Legal Hold Software market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions.

Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source

Finally, Global Legal Hold Software Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies.

Data Sources & Methodology

The primary sources involve the industry experts from the Global Legal Hold Software Market including the management organizations, processing organizations, analytics service providers of the industrys value chain. All primary sources were interviewed to gather and authenticate qualitative & quantitative information and determine the future prospects.

In the extensive primary research process undertaken for this study, the primary sources Postal Surveys, telephone, Online & Face-to-Face Survey were considered to obtain and verify both qualitative and quantitative aspects of this research study. When it comes to secondary sources Companys Annual reports, press Releases, Websites, Investor Presentation, Conference Call transcripts, Webinar, Journals, Regulators, National Customs and Industry Associations were given primary weightage.

Get More Information: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/reports/128357-global-legal-hold-software-market

What benefits does AMA research study is going to provide?

Definitively, this report will give you an unmistakable perspective on every single reality of the market without a need to allude to some other research report or an information source. Our report will give all of you the realities about the past, present, and eventual fate of the concerned Market.

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.

About Author:

Advance Market Analytics is Global leaders of Market Research Industry provides the quantified B2B research to Fortune 500 companies on high growth emerging opportunities which will impact more than 80% of worldwide companies revenues.

Our Analyst is tracking high growth study with detailed statistical and in-depth analysis of market trends & dynamics that provide a complete overview of the industry. We follow an extensive research methodology coupled with critical insights related industry factors and market forces to generate the best value for our clients. We Provides reliable primary and secondary data sources; our analysts and consultants derive informative and usable data suited for our clients business needs. The research study enables clients to meet varied market objectives a from global footprint expansion to supply chain optimization and from competitor profiling to M&As.

Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)AMA Research & Media LLPUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218[emailprotected]

Connect with us athttps://www.linkedin.com/company/advance-market-analyticshttps://www.facebook.com/AMA-Research-Media-LLP-344722399585916https://twitter.com/amareport

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Legal Hold Software Market Predicted to Witness Sustainable Evolution in Years to Come | Zapproved, PageFreezer, Acuity Scheduling - Jewish Life News

Which species will win and lose in a warmer climate? It depends where they evolved – Australian Times

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Luciano Beheregaray, Flinders University; Jonathan Sandoval Castillo, Flinders University, and Katie Gates, Flinders University

As the global climate shifts, its important to know which species have adaptations to survive. Our research published today in PNAS found it largely depends on where they evolved.

We looked at the capacity of life to respond to future climates in three different regions: temperate and subtropical regions, and in deserts. We did this by studying rainbowfishes from Australia.

The winners those best at adapting to projected summer temperatures evolved in the warm, subtropical regions. Those that evolved in cooler temperate ecosystems the losers risk becoming extinct.

This research is the first of its kind. It helps identify the types of biodiversity and ecosystems most vulnerable to climate change.

As local temperatures rise, some animals and plants might migrate from their native homes to colonise more favourable climatic regions elsewhere.

However, human activities, such as agriculture and urbanisation, are destroying and fragmenting habitats around the world. And this makes it impossible for many species to migrate away to safety.

This is where evolution comes in. Evolution creates adaptations over time that make organisms resilient to environmental changes. Species with higher adaptive resilience are more likely to keep up with changes in climate and survive.

The problem is, we dont know which types of organisms might have evolved resilience, and which might be more vulnerable to projected climate change.

We know even less about how patterns of resilience vary across different climatic regions. This is what our research explored.

We studied three similar species of rainbowfishes from different climatic regions of Australia: the subtropics, the desert and the temperate region.

Rainbowfish are diverse, small and beautiful freshwater fishes that can be kept in captivity. Rainbowfish do not migrate, so we can compare populations that evolved in different climatic regions.

We used wild rainbowfishes separated in two groups. One group was kept at a contemporary average summer temperature (21). In the other, the temperature was slowly increased until it reached a summer temperature projected for 2070 under a high emission scenario (33).

After 14 days in these conditions, we humanely killed the fishes and removed their livers. This organ plays a central role in the bodys metabolism, including during heat stress. We used the liver samples to test how gene expression (which genes are activated within a cell) changed because of our experiments.

The results were striking. Although the three species activated thousands of identical genes in a contemporary climate, they used very different sets of genes to respond to a future climate.

They also showed different levels of response in a future climate. Subtropical rainbowfish built a much larger response (with 109 genes activated) than the desert (84 genes) and the temperate rainbowfish (27 genes).

Alongside, we did another experiment to measure how much heat each species could tolerate (their upper thermal tolerance limit).

Here, rainbowfishes were exposed to increasing temperature until they showed loss of balance. As expected, the subtropical rainbowfish showed the highest tolerance, with their upper limit at 38. Desert rainbowfish could tolerate up to 37, while the temperate rainbowfish could tolerate up to 35.

With both experiments, we discovered a strong association between number of genes responding to projected temperatures and heat tolerance. In other words, winners can regulate the expression of a larger number of genes in future climates than losers can.

It is difficult to determine whether a gene is responding just because of the environment, or because of a genetic constraint that came about from evolution.

Another fascinating discovery of our study is that evolution left a strong signal on many heat stress genes. These genes are known to play a central role in dealing with heat stress and allowing survival in a variety of vertebrates. This attests to their importance in providing long-term resilience to future climates.

Our findings indicate that resilience or vulnerability to rising temperatures is expected to be influenced by geographic factors, such as the climatic region where species evolved.

Subtropical species showed greater capacity to adapt to future climates, with temperate species being the most vulnerable. Desert species, which are predicted to be exposed to more extreme heatwaves and longer droughts in the future, are also vulnerable.

This information will help identify the types of biodiversity and ecosystems at high risk of extinction and to develop ways to help them to adapt and survive. This includes restoring lost habitat and actively moving populations to more favourable climatic locations.

The implications of our study can be extended to many non-migratory animals and plants aquatic and terrestrial under pressure due to climate change.

Luciano Beheregaray, Professor in Biodiversity Genomics, Flinders University; Jonathan Sandoval Castillo, Postdoctoral Fellow Molecular Ecology, Flinders University, and Katie Gates, PhD candidate, Flinders University

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

Original post:

Which species will win and lose in a warmer climate? It depends where they evolved - Australian Times

3D Sensing Technology Market Predicted to Witness Sustainable Evolution in Years to Come | Infineon, Intel, Himax Technologies, Sony – Daily Research…

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Latest released the research study onGlobal 3D Sensing Technology Market, offers a detailed overview of the factors influencing the global business scope.3D Sensing TechnologyMarket research report shows the latest market insights, current situation analysis with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services. The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of the3D Sensing Technology Market. The study covers emerging players data, including: competitive landscape, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers.

Top players in Global 3D Sensing Technology Market are:

Infineon Technologies AG (Germany),Intel (United States),Himax Technologies (Taiwan),Sony Depth sensing Solutions (Belgium),AMS AG (Austria),Cognex Corporation (United States),LMI Technologies (Canada),Viavi solutions (United States),Panasonic Corporation (Japan),SICK AG (Germany)

Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/50445-global-3d-sensing-technology-market

Brief Overview on 3D Sensing Technology

3D Sensing can be achieved by using a different number of technologies. In this technology provides object movement based on temporal change of angles, it provides movements in the form of numerical data. 3D sensing is the optical technology behind mobile face recognition and it depends on innovative optical components. There are some techniques for 3D sensing can be used to implement face recognition, and advanced optical components support all.

Recent Development in Global 3D Sensing Technology Market:

In Jan 2019, Kneron Announced To Showcase A Latest 3D AI Solutions, Which Have Mainstream 3D Sensing Technology Support Aimed At More Accurate Image Recognition. Additionally, In Jun 2018, Vivo Introduced A New Innovative 3D Sensing Technology Named As TOF (Time Of Flight) In Shanghai, This Technology Works Through Camera And Allows Capturing Depth And 3D Information About People And Objects.

Market Drivers

Market Trend

Market Restraints:

Market Opportunities:

Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, Middle East & Africa

Enquire for customization in Report @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/50445-global-3d-sensing-technology-market

Analyst at AMA have conducted special survey and have connected with opinion leaders and Industry experts from various region to minutely understand impact on growth as well as local reforms to fight the situation. A special chapter in the study presents Impact Analysis of COVID-19 onGlobal 3D Sensing Technology Marketalong with tables and graphs related to various country and segments showcasing impact on growth trends.

Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global 3D Sensing Technology Market:

Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Global 3D Sensing Technology market

Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary the basic information of the Global 3D Sensing Technology Market.

Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Global 3D Sensing Technology

Chapter 4: Presenting the Global 3D Sensing Technology Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region 2013-2020

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Global 3D Sensing Technology market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions.

Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source

Finally, Global 3D Sensing Technology Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies.

Data Sources & Methodology

The primary sources involve the industry experts from the Global 3D Sensing Technology Market including the management organizations, processing organizations, analytics service providers of the industrys value chain. All primary sources were interviewed to gather and authenticate qualitative & quantitative information and determine the future prospects.

Get More Information: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/reports/50445-global-3d-sensing-technology-market

What benefits does AMA research study is going to provide?

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.

About Author:

Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)AMA Research & Media LLPUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218[emailprotected]

Connect with us athttps://www.linkedin.com/company/advance-market-analyticshttps://www.facebook.com/AMA-Research-Media-LLP-344722399585916https://twitter.com/amareport

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3D Sensing Technology Market Predicted to Witness Sustainable Evolution in Years to Come | Infineon, Intel, Himax Technologies, Sony - Daily Research...

Aviation Consulting Service Market Predicted to Witness Sustainable Evolution in Years to Come | ACS, Aerologistix Aviation, Baines Simmons – 3rd…

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Latest released the research study onGlobal Aviation Consulting Service Market, offers a detailed overview of the factors influencing the global business scope.Aviation Consulting ServiceMarket research report shows the latest market insights, current situation analysis with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services. The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of theAviation Consulting Service Market. The study covers emerging players data, including: competitive landscape, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers.

Top players in Global Aviation Consulting Service Market are:

ACS (England),Aerologistix Aviation Consulting WLL (Bahrain),ALTON AVIATION CONSULTANCY LLC (United States),ATPCO (United States),Baines Simmons Ltd. (United Kingdom),Emerald Aviation (United States),International Air Transport Association (Canada), ICF International Inc. (United States),Mott MacDonald (United Kingdom),Ramboll Group A/S (Denmark),Ricondo & Associates, Inc. (United States),Aviation Consulting Group LLC (United States),WSP (United States)

Free Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/sample-report/124229-global-aviation-consulting-service-market

Brief Overview on Aviation Consulting Service

The global aviation consulting service market is expected to grow at a significant rate during the forecast period, according to the AMA study. The rapid growth in number of COVID-19 suspects across the world leading to shutting down of almost all the airlines and have caused economic problems in the industry is one of the major short term drivers of this market. In addition, the expanding aviation industry owing to the rising investments in research & development across the aerospace & defense industry is another major driver of this market.

Recent Development in Global Aviation Consulting Service Market:

In July 2019, ALTON AVIATION CONSULTANCY LLC announced that it has extended its global reach with the opening of a new office in Singapore, along with its existing offices in New York, Dublin, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Beijing.

The Global Aviation Consulting Service Market segments and Market Data Break Down are illuminated below:

Study by Application (Investment Assessment & Auditing, Permitting & Compliance, Project & Information Management, Monitoring & Testing, Others), End Users (Authorities {Airport, Airlines, Government, Other Associations}, Aviation Industry Vendors {OEMs, Aftermarket}), Service (Managed, Professional)

Market Drivers

Market Trend

Market Restraints:

Market Opportunities:

Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, Middle East & Africa

Enquire for customization in Report @: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/enquiry-before-buy/124229-global-aviation-consulting-service-market

Analyst at AMA have conducted special survey and have connected with opinion leaders and Industry experts from various region to minutely understand impact on growth as well as local reforms to fight the situation. A special chapter in the study presents Impact Analysis of COVID-19 onGlobal Aviation Consulting Service Marketalong with tables and graphs related to various country and segments showcasing impact on growth trends.

Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global Aviation Consulting Service Market:

Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Global Aviation Consulting Service market

Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary the basic information of the Global Aviation Consulting Service Market.

Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Global Aviation Consulting Service

Chapter 4: Presenting the Global Aviation Consulting Service Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region 2013-2020

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Global Aviation Consulting Service market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions.

Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source

Finally, Global Aviation Consulting Service Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies.

Data Sources & Methodology

The primary sources involve the industry experts from the Global Aviation Consulting Service Market including the management organizations, processing organizations, analytics service providers of the industrys value chain. All primary sources were interviewed to gather and authenticate qualitative & quantitative information and determine the future prospects.

Get More Information: https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/reports/124229-global-aviation-consulting-service-market

What benefits does AMA research study is going to provide?

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.

About Author:

Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)AMA Research & Media LLPUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218[emailprotected]

Connect with us athttps://www.linkedin.com/company/advance-market-analyticshttps://www.facebook.com/AMA-Research-Media-LLP-344722399585916https://twitter.com/amareport

Follow this link:

Aviation Consulting Service Market Predicted to Witness Sustainable Evolution in Years to Come | ACS, Aerologistix Aviation, Baines Simmons - 3rd...

3D Animation Market Predicted to Witness Sustainable Evolution in Years to Come | Autodesk, Corel, Zco Corporation, Adobe – Owned

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Danzig

Latest released the research study onGlobal 3D Animation Market, offers a detailed overview of the factors influencing the global business scope.3D AnimationMarket research report shows the latest market insights, current situation analysis with upcoming trends and breakdown of the products and services. The report provides key statistics on the market status, size, share, growth factors of the3D Animation Market. The study covers emerging players data, including: competitive landscape, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers.

Global 3D Animation market is expected to Reach CAGR of 12.1% till 2027. The final report will add the analysis of the Impact of Covid-19 on 3D Animation Market

Top players in Global 3D Animation Market are:

Autodesk, Inc. (United States),Corel Corporation (Canada),Zco Corporation (United States),Adobe Systems Incorporated (United States),NVIDIA Corporation (United States),Pixologic, Inc. (United States),Side Effects Software Inc. (Canada),The Foundry VisionMongers Ltd. (United Kingdom),NewTek Inc. (United States) ,Maxon Computer (Germany)

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Brief Overview on 3D Animation

3D Animation is a method of developing & creating three dimensional moving images in the digital environment. Currently, the trend towards 3D animation is constantly growing. It is highly used in the media and entertainment industry. 3D animation is used to provide view in diverse projections and angles which makes it look lively. It is widely used among game developers & designers. It offers benefits such as provides superior facility to portray movements,high visual effects, and effortlessly grab attention, time management, among others. Attributed to many benefits of 3D animation, the market is likely to grow over near future. Moreover, rising adoption of visual effects technology in movies & the growing demand for 3D mobile applications are impelling the 3D animation market growth.

The Global 3D Animation Market segments and Market Data Break Down are illuminated below:

Study by Application (Media & Entertainment, Architecture & Construction, Education & Academics, Healthcare, Others), Technology (3D Modeling, Motion Graphics, 3D Rendering, Visual Effects (VFX), Others), Service (Consulting, Support and Maintenance, Integration and Deployment, Education and Training), Software (SDK, Plug-in Software, Platforms, Others)

Market Drivers

Market Challenges

Market Restraints:

Market Opportunities:

Region Included are: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Oceania, South America, Middle East & Africa

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Analyst at AMA have conducted special survey and have connected with opinion leaders and Industry experts from various region to minutely understand impact on growth as well as local reforms to fight the situation. A special chapter in the study presents Impact Analysis of COVID-19 onGlobal 3D Animation Marketalong with tables and graphs related to various country and segments showcasing impact on growth trends.

Strategic Points Covered in Table of Content of Global 3D Animation Market:

Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Global 3D Animation market

Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary the basic information of the Global 3D Animation Market.

Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges of the Global 3D Animation

Chapter 4: Presenting the Global 3D Animation Market Factor Analysis Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.

Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region 2013-2020

Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Global 3D Animation market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile

Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by manufacturers with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions.

Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source

Finally, Global 3D Animation Market is a valuable source of guidance for individuals and companies.

Data Sources & Methodology

The primary sources involve the industry experts from the Global 3D Animation Market including the management organizations, processing organizations, analytics service providers of the industrys value chain. All primary sources were interviewed to gather and authenticate qualitative & quantitative information and determine the future prospects.

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What benefits does AMA research study is going to provide?

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.

About Author:

Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)AMA Research & Media LLPUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218[emailprotected]

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Excerpt from:

3D Animation Market Predicted to Witness Sustainable Evolution in Years to Come | Autodesk, Corel, Zco Corporation, Adobe - Owned

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