Category Archives: Evolution

'Smart wearables have been engineered keeping in mind the wellness aspect and the kind of impact it brings into peoples lives.'(Representative image: Pixabay)

Pandemic has created a sea of change and the market landscape and every industry has been trying to cope with the change by adopting technology or upgrading its products/service to stay relevant in the market. In the consumer tech domain, we have seen that companies have been providing healthcare solutions within their product portfolio where SpO2 monitoring devices have become the talk of the town. Similarly, the sedentary lifestyle induced by the pandemic where work from home has become a norm has also motivated many to use smart devices to monitor their health in the form of multi-utility smartwatches and smart bands. In an exclusive conversation with the Financial Express Online Archit Aggarwal, Co-founder of Crossbeats shared insights on the use of technology in healthcare and about his brand Crossbeats. Excerpts:

How significant are the health metrics offered by wearables in ensuring the wellbeing of people? How has the segment evolved with regard to fitness or the pandemic?

Our smart wearables have always been engineered keeping in mind the wellness aspect and the kind of impact it brings into peoples lives. Pandemic being a dictator at the moment, our line-up of smart wearables are well equipped with modern health tracking features like Heart Rate monitor, SpO2 monitor (blood oxygen), Blood pressure monitor and scientific sleep tracker. With the steady evolution in technology, we are constantly upgrading and bringing in newer features that will improve the quality of life and help people elevate their fitness levels to fight the pandemic.

How has been the last pandemic-struck 18 months for the brand? Please share growth figures

Just like all other businesses across the world, the pandemic dealt a blow to our supply chain as well as operations. The extended lockdowns that followed the outbreak impacted the fulfilment and delivery of the products. However, as we are a consumer tech brand with focus on e-commerce, our team was quick and responsive in adapting and improvising as per the changed work environment. We made provisions for work from home for our associates, ensured all safety precautions for our operations team and partnered with the right logistics company for last-mile delivery. Our associates attended a vaccination drive so that they can stay safe. Our marketing team adapted to the need for the hour and launched a bestselling TWS Crossbeats Torq, along with a couple of more products, designed specifically for the working professionals who needed work from home products. Smart wearables were launched thereafter to provide health tracking to the consumers in the wake of the pandemic. With all these changes, we have been able to significantly grow the base business despite the challenges.

What is your strategy for the coming months to carve a niche for your products?

We understand closely what the Indian youth demands. Over the last five years, we have been able to strike the perfect balance between style and technology. In the upcoming months, we expect to increase our marketing and create a clear value proposition for our end consumers. We have plans to partner with other big distributors in order to make our products available in the offline channels as well. Our marketing team is also working on launching new products that are loaded with industry-leading features.

What new features or products can we expect from the brand?

Crossbeats R&D team along with the design experts are constantly exploring the current scenarios to understand the requirements of the modern Indian Youth. Our findings have inspired us to design and develop products on a need-based proposition, with cutting-edge technology and high-end specifications. In the coming days, the market can see Crossbeats coming up with advancements to our noise-cancelling earbuds with upgraded sound units and enhanced microphones amid other new launches. In the smartwatch category, you can expect technological upgrades like faster UI and improved health and fitness monitoring.

Brief us about the journey of Crossbeats.

The inception of Crossbeats dates back to 2015, a period when the world was getting exposed to different kinds of consumer technology while it was still in its nascent stage in India. From wired earphones to speakers, most products available in India were either international and extremely expensive or local and not at par in terms of quality. The realisation of this gap in the Indian market made me and my brother Abhinav Agarwal embark on a new journey with Crossbeats, which we envisioned as a true Indian brand that understands the new young Indians and designs tech products around their lifestyle.

Crossbeats has since then evolved from being just an audio brand to a consumer tech brand for the new Indian youth. Recently we also forayed into the wearables segment, taking into consideration the needs of the pandemic-hit world where people need to keep a real time watch on key health metrics such as blood oxygen level.

Crossbeats has been for quite some time into audio products. How has the market sentiment been? Was pandemic a factor behind your entry into the wearable segment?

As an ally to the new urban Indians, who are active, on the move and adventurous, Crossbeats has over the years created products that push the boundaries of science, art, and technology. This has resulted in Crossbeats enjoying a loyal customer base and getting the opportunity to cater to those who are passionate about our products. With over more than 5 lakh happy customers, we have had a remarkable response to our exclusive range of audio products. Our customers love the designs and the engineering that has gone into each of our products.

Be it the iconic Torq or the stylish Pebble, Crossbeats products have always been designed keeping in mind the end consumers. Crossbeats had always envisioned the growth towards active living and products being an extension of a persons lifestyle. Therefore, the segway into smart wearables was an obvious decision to create unique experiences in the intersection between lifestyle and tech that enrich peoples lives. With a genuine passion for new technologies and user-centric innovation, we wanted to provide the Indian youth with fitness, and lifestyle experience as smooth and seamless as possible.

Many players are offering similar kinds of products at similar price points, what makes your product stand out?

As a lifestyle consumer tech brand inspired by current movements in fashion, art, and music, our products are very design-centric. Our philosophy is simple and focused on providing clean aesthetics, user-friendly features, and heavy attention to detail. The unique experiences thus created through our bouquet of unique products makes us stand out of the clutter. Besides, adoption of advanced technology, frequent product launches, appealing designs and competitive pricing has allowed us to create a fan following of our brand that has only grown stronger since our inception.

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Evolution in technology will improve quality of life and elevate fitness levels: Archit Aggarwal, Crossbeats - The Financial Express

The coming Olympics will showcase some of the most extraordinary human feats of strength, speed, and agility. As an archaeologist who focuses on the development of the human species over evolutionary history, its interesting to consider how and why we came to be so good at certain things, from javelin throwing to the 500-meter sprint. Much of what makes our bodies capable of athletic prowess comes from well before we were Homo sapiens.

Human athletic paleobiology is a branch of research that uses trained athletes to explore adaptations of the human body. These studies focus on metabolism and peak physical performance, limb biomechanics, and other aspects of human anatomy and physiology to get a sense of the types of activities that humans in the past might have been capable of performing.

Here is a short roundup of some things we humans can do that make for great sport, along with a quick look at where these skills come from and how long theyve been around.

The ancestors of modern humans have walked upright since around 4 million years ago, when members of the genus Australopithecus first started spending more time on the ground than in treetop habitats. Evolving to be bipedal changed a number of things about the human skeletal structure. Our pelvis is shorter and wider than that of other living primates. This is because we move by exerting force mostly through muscles in our butts and legs rather than along our backs and shoulders, as a knuckle-walking chimp would. Our lower femurs (the big bone in your thigh) develop a specific shape, called the bicondylar angle, as we learn to walk.

This allows us to stride in a rolling motion, transferring our weight smoothly from side to side as we go. If youve ever seen a gorilla or chimpanzee walk on two legs instead of four, youll notice that they have a much more waddling gait. Our smoother gait helps us walkand runmore efficiently.

Homo sapiens in particular, with longer legs and shorter Achilles tendons than some of our ancestors, seem particularly well-suited to running long distances. Researchers have suggested that early humans were able to hunt prey animals like antelope or zebra by repeatedly startling them into running long stretches in the midday heat, eventually running the animals to exhaustion.

When we compare ourselves to other living primates, one of the most noticeable differences is a lack of body hairand the fact that we sweat. Thermoregulation, the bodys ability to maintain an ideal temperature, is critical for all mammals, but humans are unique in our capacity to sweat all over our bodies, creating evaporative cooling.

When did we lose all our hair and become sweaty, naked creatures? Counterintuitively, studies have shown that humans and chimps, our closest primate relatives, actually have roughly the same number of follicles over our bodies. Our hair is simply much shorter and finer.

So, what prompted the change from full fur to fine hair? Charles Darwin proposed that it was a sexually selected traitthat our distant female ancestors preferred, and mated with, less hairy males. However, the more likely scenario has more to do with environmental rather than sexual pressures. During our evolution in Africa, the move from forests to more open, hotter environments meant that the ability to keep cool contributed to survival in a big way.

Our sweaty selves can now compete in sporting events even in the heatalthough climate change might soon make most cities too hot to reasonably play host to Summer Olympics.

While the bottom half of our body has evolved away from an arboreal lifestyle, our upper body still retains traits that we inherited from tree-dwellers. Our glenohumeral joint, the ball-and-socket connection between our upper arm and scapula, allows us to swing our arms around in a full rotation. This is a very different type of mobility from that of quadruped animals that dont swing in treesa dog or cats front legs, for example, primarily swing back and forth and couldnt perform a butterfly swim stroke. We, on the other hand, can.

Our rotatable shoulder joint also allows us to throw overhand. The ability to throw accurately and forcefully appears to have originated at least 2 million years ago, with our ancestors Homo erectus. Recent research has also shown that Neanderthals might have thrown spears to hunt at a distance. The few known examples of Neanderthal spears were long thought to be used only for thrusting and close-in killing of prey, in part because when researchers tried to throw replicas, they didnt go far.

Recently, however, researchers put replicas into the hands of trained javelin throwers and were stunned to see the spears fly much farther and fastermore than 65 feet.

Human hands are unique in their dexterity, which has evolutionary roots as early as 2 million years ago. Evidence for this early development of hands like ours, with opposable thumbs and the ability to apply force in either a strong or delicate grasp, comes from a single metacarpal boneone of the bones that forms the palmfor a hominin found at a site in Kenya. This grip lets us do everything from grasping a pen to a golf club.

The evolution of our hands has included both biological and cultural selection for right- versus left-handed individuals. Both Neanderthal and early Homo sapiens populations seem to have had roughly the same ratio of right-handed to left-handed individuals as modern humans. (Today we are about 85 percent right-handed).

Researchers have suggested one explanation for this lies in the emphasis of cooperation in human communities (which favors everyone having the same handedness so they can share tools, for example) over competition (which favors difference, so a lefty can beat a right-hander in a fight). Some evidence for this theory comes from sport: A study of how many elite athletes are left-handed across different sports showed that the more competitive the sport, the greater the proportion of lefties.

Many species of animals play, but humans are the only species to play games involving organized rules and equipment. We not only play by throwing, kicking, or otherwise propelling balls of various materials, we sometimes do so with bats, sticks, or racquets.

The generally accepted theory for the evolutionary origins of play is that it allows children to learn actions and tasks that they will need to master as adults. In hunter-gatherer populations, games that help children develop accuracy, power, and hand-eye coordination are useful practice for hunting. There is plenty of archaeological evidence to suggest that children played with miniature versions of hunting tools or other tools of adult trades going back to at least 400,000 years ago.

Some of the earliest evidence for ballgames comes from ancient Egypt: The tomb of a child dating to around 2500 B.C. included a ball made from linen rags and string. In China, the sport of cuju, which was similar to modern soccer and played with a leather ball stuffed with feathers, is depicted in paintings and reportedly dates back to 2300 B.C.

The most famous ancient ballgame, though, has its origins in Mesoamerica. Ceramic figurines and murals dating to as early as 1700 B.C., and ball courts dating to approximately 1600 B.C., attest to a game that was a huge and complex part of Olmec, Aztec, and Maya society.

This story was originally published on Sapiens, an anthropology magazine.

Anna Goldfield, an archaeologist who received her PhD from Boston University, specializes in analyzing faunal remains from archaeological sites, with particular emphasis on the diets of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. She is currently an adjunct instructor in anthropology at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento and at the University of California, Davis. Goldfield is the illustrator of The Neanderthal Child of Roc de Marsal: A Prehistoric Mystery and co-host of "The Dirt", an archaeology podcast. Follow her on Twitter @AnnaGoldfield.

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Five Ways Humans Evolved to Be Athletes | Science - Smithsonian Magazine

DUBLIN, Aug. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Nucleic Acid Isolation and Purification Market: Focus on Product, End User, Region/Country Data and Competitive Landscape - Analysis and Forecast, 2021-2031" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Global Nucleic Acid Isolation and Purification Market to Reach $5,010.3 Million by 2031

The report found the nucleic acid isolation and purification market to be one of the growing markets, which is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 7.20% during the forecast period, 2021-2031.

The nucleic acid isolation and purification market growth has been primarily attributed to the major drivers in this market, such as growing number of genetic tests, increasing demand for reliable next-generation sequencing (NGS) results, rise in the prevalence of infectious diseases, increasing research funding in the field of molecular biology, and increase in awareness and acceptance of personalized medicine on a global level.

However, genomic data protection, high cost of automated instruments, and rigid regulatory standards are some of the factors expected to retrain the market growth.

The market is favored by the increased research activities based on next-generation sequencing-based technologies. The consumable segment has been segmented to into DNA and RNA sample type, among which RNA sample type is expected to growth at a highest CAGR of 7.70% during the forecast period 2021-2031. This increase is mainly attributed to the large number of research and development being conducted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically considering viral RNA sample.

Within the research report, the market is segmented on the basis of product type, end users, and region. The kits segment is further segment into DNA and RNA, to gain holistic view of the industry.

Competitive Landscape

The exponential rise in the downstream application such as next-generation sequencing, polymerase chain reaction, and other techniques used for COVID-19 testing on the global level has created a buzz among companies to invest in the development of extraction RNA free severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tests.

Due to technologically advanced solutions and intense market penetration, companies such as Qiagen N.V., Promega Corporation, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. have been a pioneer and a significant competitor in this market.

Key Companies Profiled

Agilent Technologies, Inc., Analytik Jena AG, AutoGen, Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Illumina, Inc., Merck KGaA, Meridian Bioscience, Inc., Macherey-Nagel GmbH & Co KG, New England Biolabs, Inc, Norgen Biotek Corp., Omega Bio-tek, Inc., Orasure Technologies, Inc., PerkinElmer, Inc., Promega Corporation, QIAGEN N.V., Sage Science, Inc., Tecan Group, ThermoFisher Scientific Inc., Zymo Research

With the increasing demand for complex and custom sequencing techniques, rising genetic testing services, and growing research to treat and diagnose genetic and infectious diseases, companies have the opportunity to expand their product portfolios, increasing automation facilitation, and develop novel techniques for nucleic acid extraction by adopting different strategic approaches.

Some of the strategies followed by the contributors are new product launches and enhancements, agreements, collaborations, partnerships, acquisitions, and expansions. For instance, in 2020, Promega Corporation has launched Wizard HMW DNA Extraction Kit for researchers working with large fragments of genomic DNA, which enables researchers to obtain DNA that will provide strong performance in long-read sequencing applications in a 90-minute manual protocol.

The nucleic acid isolation and purification market has immensely propelled by nationwide sequencing activities, focusing on generating large genomic libraries for research and development purpose. For instance, Illumina, Inc. has invested $60.0 million in sequencing capabilities to a global pathogen genomics initiative, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other public and private entities.

Under the contract, Illumina, Inc. will donate next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms, reagents, and training support worth approximately US $60 million over five years.

Key Questions Answered in this Report:

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Market Restraints

Market Opportunities

Company Profiles

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

Media Contact:

Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [emailprotected]

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SOURCE Research and Markets

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Global Nucleic Acid Isolation and Purification Market Report 2021-2031: Evolution of Biobanking in Healthcare / Capitalizing on Genetic Disorders /...

LONDON The role of the chief communications officer and chief marketing officer will evolve as a direct result of an increasing business focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and its link with reputation, according to a survey of leading CMOs and CCOs.

Surveyed for the Influence 100,PRovoke Medias comprehensive annual report on the worlds most influential in-house communications and marketing leaders, a majority view from this years cohort expressed for the first time was that ESG would lead to a rise in prominence of the CCO function.

Among the responses outlined in the third wave of insights from the survey,published this week were: The CCO will need to lead integration of ESG across the enterprise; The role of CCO is overtaking CMO with the growing reputational, economic, environmental and social impact expectations of companies, leaders and brands; and Best-in-class chief communication officers and chief marketing officers will continue to see their responsibilities broaden and deepen as commercial and social/ESG challenges play out in a multi-stakeholder world.

The report also looks at diversity in all its facets. Diversity, equity and inclusion has continued to be a spotlight theme for the industry this year, but the research found that last years dramatic shift in what CCOs require of their PR agencies, and how committed they think the industry is to diversity, has somewhat slowed down.

In 2020, the number of respondents who agree or strongly agree that their PR agencies must have an ethnically diverse team was up from 67% in 2019 to 86%; this year, its down to 78%. Many more were neutral compared to last year, too: 16% compared to 7% in 2020. And 6% of in-house leaders a similar level to last year still disagree or strongly disagree that their agencies must have ethically-diverse teams.

There is a more stable level of conviction when it comes to whether our respondents think the communications industry is committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting people of colour: 52% agreed or strongly agreed, compared with 53% last year, compared to just 37% in 2017. A further 32% were neutral, up from 22% last year. And only 14% now think the industry is not committed to resolving issues of racial inequity, with no-one strongly disagreeing compared to 25% who disagreed or strongly disagreed last year.

When it comes to gender, theres been a worrying drop off in the number of CCOs who agree their PR agencies must have a gender-balanced account team, down from 82% last year to 73%, below 2019s figure of 77%. There were also many more neutral respondents this year, although the number who disagreed that gender balance was a requirement of their agency teams was down notably to 2% from 11% last year.

There was a slight increase in the number of our influencers who agree that the industry is committed to recruiting, retaining and promoting women, from 84% last year to 82%. A further 16% took a neutral position, with only 2% saying they disagreed with this statement and no-one saying they strongly disagreed.

We also asked our Influence 100 to delve deeper this year, and come up with practical suggestions for what the PR industry could actually do to improve diversity, equity and inclusion. Two areas of focus stood out in the responses: recruitment in general, and bringing younger people from more diverse backgrounds into the industry.

One respondent eloquently summed up the complexity of the issue: Businesses cannot solve the problems of today or tomorrow with a mindset of the past. With regard to diversity, equity and inclusion in PR, just do it! For the sake of innovation and relevance, cultivate and appoint leadership and account teams who have the cognitive diversity that comes from a fierce combination of the diversity you can see and the diversity you must inquire about (life experience, problem-solving style, barriers successfully overcome in life experience, leadership style). The two types of diversity are inter-related and invaluable for crafting teams and solutions that break convention and result in a competitive advantage.

When we asked our respondents more generally about their predictions for the future of the CCO and CMO roles within businesses, the responses were largely aligned. Many, as in previous years, feel that there will be more integration and a blurring of the two roles.

The survey also provides insights into the greatest communications challenges they and their organisations are facing in lockdown. The top two responses cited by 60% of respondents were workplace disruption, up from 49% last year, and staff health and wellbeing, up from 46% in 2020. Other concerns were travel and movement restrictions, customer disruption, sales and earnings, misinformation and layoffs.

Profiles of the Influence 100 can be found here, including Q&As from many of this year's list. Insights into their demographics and background here; and research into budgets and how they manage agencies are here.

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Influence 100: ESG Will Drive Evolution Of In-House Communications Roles - PRovoke Media

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. The world can thank Missouri for developing some of the countrys and the worlds biggest musical acts. And before KOLR was KOLR, we were KTTS: The areas first television station and sister station to one of the most popular country music stations around. So settle back and enjoy this look at Missouris musical legacy.

When we go back to the roots of Missouri music, theres no better expert to call on than long-time radio host Wayne Glenn. Hes like a walking encyclopedia of music and Missouris role in shaping it.

So, what makes Ozarks music unique?

According to Glenn, If we talk about 200 years of America, Missouri, the Ozarks, and we start talking about Ozarks music, then, of course, the Irish and the scotch-Irish, all the different groups. They brought their instruments with them when they came in the 1830s, and 40s, and 50s, and 60s. And the heritage began there and has continued right on until the days of Branson, the Ozark Jubilee in the 1950s and 60s, the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Big Smith, Tom Whitlocks composition, Take My Breath Away, which was an academy award-winning song written by an Ozarker. Its just one thing after another. We have this wonderful mixture of fiddles (call them violins, if you want to be technical), banjos, the jews harp, the harmonica, and the guitar. And, the traditions of American families here in the Ozarks getting together around an organ or a piano with the stringed instruments and just having fun playing and singing.

And when you talk about Ozarks music, Wayne says theres one form in particular that made southwest Missouri a mecca.

The most famous style of Ozark music, from a professional angle, would be country, said Wayne. Theres no doubt about that. And it all began, really, as far as the money part, with fiddlers getting paid on Saturday night to play at a square dance. And that would even be back in the 1800s. There were fiddlers who were known in their community to be good, and they would be paid. Not much, but some little amount of money. Then you come to the radio. When commercial radio came to the Ozarks, well, in this case, KWTO, KGBX Springfield in 1932/1933, then they began, those musicians, the Slim Wilsons, the Speedy Haworth, the Goodwill Family, the Hayden family, Lonnie and Thelma, all those namesthey began to be paid to be on the radio.

Ozarks radio led the way with nationally syndicated live music from its legendary radio stations, one of which, KTTS, had a future game show host as its DJ. At the time, the price, and the gig, were right for Drury University Alum Bob Barker.

But soon, Springfield was knocking on Nashvilles door as a country music centerpiece, with acts like Eddy Arnoldstill the artist with the most top 10 country songs in historyhosting a national T.V. variety show from Springfields Jewell Theatre.

Eddy, when he first became famous in Nashville, back in the mid-to-late 1940s, he did a syndicated radio show that was put together by Charlie Brown and Jim Brown, said Wayne. The Brown Brothers were from Springfield. They were working in Nashville in the late 40s. So then, in the 50s, when it became a possibility that Springfield might become an important venue for lots of network shows, then the Browns came back to Springfield and they approached Eddy Arnold about doing a T.V. show from the Jewell Theatre as part of the Radiozark, which is the company that owned the Jubilee and the Jewell concept. He came. Eddy came.

Arnold came and went, and so did Springfields musical dominance. Soon Branson, led by entertainers like Ray Stevens and Andy Williams, would remake Ozarks musical image for a new generation.

You know the story is Ray Stevens was already here, said Wayne. Well when ray stevens came in the 1980s/early 1990s, ray stevens was a bigger entertainer, as far as hits, than andy Williams was. Andy was very well known, but his heyday of hit records was over. Ray Stevens was still going well. Ray stevens manager was andy Williams brother. And ray stevens managerthat brothertold brother Andy this is where you need to come to continue your fame and fortune. And thats what andy did.

And while its unclear whats next for music in the Ozarks, the region will always have a sweet-sounding legacy to celebrate.

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Show Me Missouri: The evolution of music in the Ozarks - KOLR - OzarksFirst.com

Wednesday, August 4, 2021 at 2:02 pm | Back to: Top News

Updated: August 4, 2021 at 2:21 pm

Tickets for the EQUUS Evolution theatrical performance, the evening showcase of the EQUITANA USA trade fair and expo, are on sale now at http://www.equitanausa.com. The performances will be held in Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park Oct. 1-3.

The 90-minute performance will include appearances from performing arts trainer and championship competitor Mario Contreras with special appearances include the American Vaulting Association's Lynn Palm and Nic Roldan. Highlighting the artistic vision of Chanel Rhodes, select performances at the evdent will include unique equine attire.

The full EQUITANA USA day programming includes exhibitions, educational and performance content, as well as the full trade show and marketplace of equine industry products and services.

Tickets for the full EQUITANA USA show are $27 (ages 13+), $10 (ages 6-12), and free for children five and under and include on-site parking, free United States Equestrian Federation fan membership and admission into the Kentucky Horse Park, which includes access to the International Museum of the Horse, American Saddlebred Museum and Hall of Champions.

For more information about EQUITANA USA, also visit http://www.kyhorsepark.com.

Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.

This story was posted in Top News and tagged Alltech Arena, EQUITANA, Equitana USA, EQUUS Evolution, Kentucky Horse Park, tickets on sale, trade fair and expo.

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EQUUS Evolution Tickets on Sale - Thoroughbred Daily News

Liverpools evolution of their squad should provide more opportunities for youngsters Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott, according to former defender Jamie Carragher.

The departure of Georginio Wijnaldum, 31 in November, at the end of last season has drawn criticism from a section of fans concerned at the loss of the clubs most consistent and reliable midfielder.

However, with a significant number of the squad which won the 2018-19 Champions League and 2019-20 Premier League titles aged 29 or over, there is a need to gradually introduce new blood to reduce the age profile.

A new contract for Fabinho on Tuesday, following on from Trent Alexander-Arnolds four-year deal, with the likes of Alisson Becker, Mohamed Salah, Virgil Van Dijk and Sadio Mane also set to get extensions, is part of the long-term planning.

But the process of refreshing the squad has already begun with the arrival of 22-year-old centre-back Ibrahima Konate this summer and Diogo Jota, 24, last year.

It also offers greater opportunity for the likes of 20-year-old Jones and 18-year-old Elliott, who impressed last season on loan at Blackburn but, the PA news agency understands, will not be allowed to leave again as his integration into the first-team squad will begin in earnest.

You want the team to evolve. You dont want drastic change, revolution, and seven players have to go out because theyve all come to the end at the same time, Carragher, speaking at a Soccer Aid event, told PA.

You want Wijnaldum to stay but I can understand it from the clubs point of view as well: there are a lot of players in that midfield getting to that age and maybe you want younger blood; more room for Curtis Jones, maybe, who is another player who will come in.

I can understand it from both situations but there are a lot of players at that stage of two years to go with Liverpool around that 28-to-30 mark and we have possibly seen the first two or three of that (rejuvenation) with Jota and Konate coming in.

I think there maybe one more before the window closes but over the next couple of years we will have to see a few more and that gradual evolving of that great Jurgen Klopp team will come to an end and hopefully he will be able to create another one before he goes.

With another 29-year-old, Xherdan Shaqiri, expected to depart before the end of the transfer window, another place in the squad will be freed up and Carragher believes Elliott is a perfect fit.

He was outstanding last season, one of the best players in the Championship for such a young lad, he added.

I actually see Harvey coming in and taking the place of Shaqiri, really, who I think will move on, and he (Elliott) will have that role in the squad.

It is interesting in pre-season he has played more central midfield than part of the front three because its always going to be difficult being a right-sided attacking player with a left foot when you have Mo Salah in front of you but he will get opportunities.

He is a player of huge quality and I am sure he is going to have a massive Liverpool future and, when you have someone who has that quality, it doesnt matter about his age, you have to give them their head.

Id imagine Harvey Elliott will be getting 15 to 20 games this season.

:: Soccer Aid for UNICEF 2021 takes place on Saturday September 4 at the Etihad Stadium. The money raised from this years game will help UNICEF fight back against the Covid-19 pandemic by helping to deliver two billion vaccines worldwide. Tickets are available at: http://www.socceraid.org.uk/tickets

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Jamie Carragher hoping Reds' evolution will provide opportunities for youngsters - BT Sport

Image for representational purposes

Covid-19 and impact on the automotive glazing industry: The Automotive industry, with its multi-layered global supply chain, was significantly impacted due to the pandemic. In the year 2020, the one-month nationwide lockdown brought the industry to a standstill. However, due to the pent-up demand and increased need for personal mobility the industry recorded strong volumes in the last quarter of 2020.

The Indian automotive glazing industry was also affected due to fluctuation in demand. The other factor which had an impact is the depreciation of the Indian Rupee as many key input materials still need to be imported. Logistics of getting components for various regions became a challenge due to restrictions in the country of origin, lack of regular connectivity and movement on various locations by road. The pandemic also forced the auto component industry to look for alternate sources and put import substitution on top priority.

Regional lockdowns impacted the distribution and retailing of glass directly impacting the replacement glass business. However, this segment recorded a strong demand as soon as the restrictions were eased.

Improvement in the glazing processes over the last decade

The automotive industry requires two types of glasses in an automobile, a laminated windshield for the front and tempered glass for the sides and rear to meet the safety regulations.

The laminated windshield provides protection against external impacts ranging from a small stone to even accidents. Technically laminated glass consists of two layers of strengthened glass sandwiched by a plastic interlayer, called PVB that acts as a safety layer that holds on to the glass even after shattering.

The tempered glasses for the sides and the rear provide safety by their mere strength and the ability to shatter into small pieces without any sharp edges. The toughening process involves heating of annealed glass just above 600C and the surfaces are rapidly cooled to create compression on the outer surface and tension on the inside. This causes residual stresses and makes the toughened glass stronger by 6 times the normal annealed glass and provides the same visible light transmission.

Automotive glazing has become thinner to reduce the overall weight of the vehicle. This helps in improving mileage and thus contributes to the reduction in carbon footprint. A significant weight reduction of 25-30% can be achieved by using thinner glass without compromising the safety requirement.

The color of the glasses has changed from clear to green and solar control green. These glasses help in reducing the heat coming inside the car offering better comfort to the user. The reduction in heat coming inside the vehicle minimizes the load on air conditioning and further improves fuel efficiency. Some of the export models also have privacy glasses, which are legally permitted in many regions outside India.

The glazing normally cuts noise entering the vehicle cabin but in recent years the acoustic comfort is enhanced by special laminated glasses and encapsulated side glasses. These new technologies improve acoustic comfort inside the cabin for better conversation or noise-free listening of the audio system.

Next decade will be an inclination towards EV

India has recognized that EVs hold immense potential in reducing pollution and dependency on imported petroleum products. The policies, regulations and subsidies are progressing towards the adoption of Electric Vehicles in the coming years. As EVs are different from a conventional IC engine vehicle at the fundamental level in terms of design, performance, durability and safety there is also a very different expectation on the automotive glazing side. The glazing of a typical electric vehicle is expected to add more features and improve driving comfort more than just a structural and a safety-critical part.

Electric vehicles not only provide reduced energy dependence and less maintenance but also focusses on several driving comfort features. Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) is one of the major emerging technology that addresses driving comfort and increases car and road safety. The ADAS use automated technology, such as sensors and cameras, to detect nearby obstacles or driver errors, and respond accordingly.

Thermal comfort is even more important in an EV and in order to achieve higher thermal efficiencies, coated glazing is being used. A special metallic coating reflects out the heat while allowing the visible part of the light to pass through, resulting in superior performance.

Most of the sensors like rain-light-sensor (RLS) are housed at the top of the windshield. Cameras and Lidar also can be integrated into the windshield, which would protect them from the external environment and at the same time giving them a view very similar to that of the driver.

Another important development is the HUD (Head-up Display) which allows the driver to get information and navigational support right in front without taking his eyes off the road. Higher costs have limited this technology to the luxury segment, however, with improvement in technology and scale HUD will start becoming popular in all segments. With the integration of electronics into glazing systems, several exciting applications can be expected in the coming years.

Author: Venu Shanbhag, Managing Director (Sekurit), Saint-Gobain India

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the original author. These views and opinions do not represent those of The Indian Express Group or its employees.

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Evolution of automotive glazing in India: Impact of pandemic and road ahead - Financial Express

Tax professionals are going virtual in droves. Taxpayers need to understand how changes in the tax ... [+] industry will affect customer service in the future.

Even during the best of times, the work environment for tax practitioners during tax season can be described as toxic. Return volume is high, time is short, and clients are oftenproblematic. Then along came Covid-19. In 2020 even though deadlines were extended to help taxpayers and tax practitioners cope with the effects of the lockdowns many tax practitioners struggled to adapt to a business model without face-to-face interaction with clients. Many were completely unprepared. Others, however, were ready. Enrolled Agent and self-described gadget girl Nayo Carter-Gray had been moving towards a fully virtual practice for years when the pandemic hit. During that time she realized that the process for changing from an in-person to a virtual office wasnt taught anywhere. She had learned piecemeal. So in the summer of 2020 she launched the Taking Your Firm Virtual Summit as a comprehensive vehicle for practitioners wishing to move their practices into the 21st century. This years summit runs from August 3-5 and features a broad complement of speakers who will help tax practitioners continue to transform their practices in preparation for what promises to be at least a few more chaotic tax filing seasons.

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Practitioners like Nayo and her speakers are on the leading edge of the tax and accounting future state. They are transforming a staid industry into something much more valuable to its clients while also working to eliminate some of the industrys more toxic traits. But what does that have to do with me, the taxpayer, you may be asking? Quite a bit actually.

The trend toward virtual offices is accelerating a more general trend in the tax and accounting industry toward automating the most routine client interactions and tasks. Newer practitioners see automation as a way to grow their firms while providing an extremely high level of service to their clients. More established practitioners have begun using automation to reallocate their resources from office administrative tasks to more advanced tax planning and issue resolution that can only be done by a human. So what types of changes can taxpayers expect moving forward? Keep reading to find out.

First, finding a retail tax practice with regular hours where you can walk in without an appointment, drop off your paperwork, or even have your tax return prepared while you wait may become more difficult unless you choose one of the large chains. Many smaller practices and solo practitioners have made the post-Covid realization that working from home works for them. Eliminating rent from office overhead means either higher profits or the same profits but a much lower workload. Even practitioners who maintain an office outside of their home may no longer offer walk-in or drop off service, especially solo practitioners.

Some practitioners will no longer accept paper documents. Clients are expected to complete annual engagement paperwork and organizers online and then use a secure portal to upload their tax documents. For security reasons even fully virtual firms will not accept documents attached to e-mail or (crikey!) via text message. Those firms who do accept paper documents usually will also accept uploaded documents or maintain a largely paperless office where client documents are scanned and returned to the client.

Clients should also expect to self-schedule document pick ups and drop offs and phone calls. Solo practitioners especially are learning to use self-scheduling applications and time management tools to block specific times for specific tasks. For example, many practitioners block off their most productive time for working on tax returns and less productive time for returning calls and answering e-mails. Tax returns will be delivered electronically, picked up by appointment, or delivered by mail or courier and, once the documents are in hand, the client will use an app to schedule a review appointment if desired. Some practitioners may still offer in-office appointments, but clients can also expect to be encouraged to choose phone or video chat appointments instead.

Amanda McGowan, owner of Elevating Profits in metropolitan Denver, is both an Enrolled Agent and a business coach. She teaches tax practitioners how to achieve a no call office. Amanda is a big proponent of using time blocking to set professional boundaries especially for seemingly urgent but rarely truly important items (calls, e-mails, drop in visits) that often interrupt more productive workflow and deep work. She encourages using a website for basic tasks such as scheduling and FAQs to provide answers to common questions. The process does meet with client pushback especially for those expecting an immediate response about making an appointment, office hours or prices, wheres my stuff type updates, or to see if the firm is accepting new clients. Nevertheless, the no call office can realize huge benefits for tax practitioners who implement it and, eventually, clients who truly value the practitioners time get used to the boundaries and those who dont find another practitioner.

Annual client interviews and initial client screening are moving online as well. Nayo uses her online client onboarding interview as a screening tool for potential clients. Potential clients who do not take the time to follow her well thought out instructions and process are deemed not a good fit for her practice and left to keep shopping for another provider. Even existing clients who do not make use of written instructions or video tutorials and who insist on calling or e-mailing their tax office for technical support could find themselves looking for a new tax professional. In general, beleaguered taxpros are now much more willing to fire clients who are deemed high maintenance and/or low margin. In other words, too much work for not enough profit.

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Tax practices who depend on high volume may be willing to prepare returns for almost any client but this high-volume business model is disappearing except for certain niche areas. Taxpayers with simple to medium complexity returns often opt for do-it-yourself software rather than paying a preparer. Firms that specialize in medium to high complexity returns often cannot accommodate high client volume during tax season without adding and training additional staff, which often increases overhead in amounts out of proportion to the profit on the additional returns. Rather than add tax season volume, some tax practices are simply adding other services (for example proactive tax planning and business advisory services) that generate revenue throughout the year and using automated proposal and marketing software to attract this new type of business.

In general, cutting edge tax and accounting firms are using automation to streamline office processes, reduce overhead, and optimize the use of human talent. By doing so they can both facilitate growth and provide themselves with some much needed breathing room during and outside of tax season. Jamie OKane, CPA-owner of Abundant Beans Tax & Accounting in Littleton, Colorado says Accountants tend to be helper types that will bend over backwards for their clients in a way that doesnt serve either the client or the professional. Having a virtual practice can compound the problem because of the ability for the practitioner to work anywhere at any time. On the client side the appearance of 24/7 access can create unrealistic expectations about practitioner availability and work turnaround times. On the practitioner side it can erode work-life boundaries to the point where the taxpro never has the downtime necessary to recharge. In addition to burnout, being constantly on can have physical consequences: debilitating headaches, hives, even heart attacks. At this years summit Jamie is teaching virtual taxpros how to streamline their communications to ensure nothing slips through the cracks without spending too much time managing paper and processes. Shes also providing taxpros with the tools necessary to regularly, and sometimes automatically, communicate with clients to reassure them that their documents and questions will be properly handledbut in a way that maintains efficiency for the taxpro.

Tyrone Gregory, The Self Employed Tax Guy from Cerritos, California, is teaching a class called The One Man Band at this years summit. He feels that many solo practices fail because of lack of efficiency on both the practitioner and client side. According to Tyrone, the most common inefficiencies in solo practices stem from issues related to the prompt collection of complete information. There is always something left out and there is always an issue when it comes to trying to get the client in the seat. In other words, practitioners spend too much time trying to force clients to promptly submit necessary information. Tyrones goal is to show both the professional and the clients how all of this could be resolved if they just embrace the technology that we have in front of us.

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Clients who are looking for highly personalized service and who expect a high level of person-to-person interaction throughout the entire return preparation process should be prepared to find a tax professional who provides concierge level service and should expect to pay for it. Good tax professionals are just thatprofessionals. They are passionate about tax and about helping businesses succeed (both their own businesses and their clients). The goal of a good tax professional is to ensure that you pay the correct amount of tax and that you get every possible tax benefit to which you are legally entitled. Moving forward tax professionals will choose to spend their time doing just that and automating the more mundane aspects of running a tax practice: appointment scheduling, answering routine calls, data collection, etc. No one likes change, but clients and practitioners who take the time to adapt and to learn the new tools are likely to realize that the added convenience of well-placed automation makes up for the time spent on the learning curve.

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Not Your Mamas TaxPro - The Evolution Of Professional Tax Return Preparation - Forbes

Abstract

Birds today are the most diverse clade of terrestrial vertebrates, and understanding why extant birds (Aves) alone among dinosaurs survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction is crucial to reconstructing the history of life. Hypotheses proposed to explain this pattern demand identification of traits unique to Aves. However, this identification is complicated by a lack of data from non-avian birds. Here, we interrogate survivorship hypotheses using data from a new, nearly complete skull of Late Cretaceous (~70 million years) bird Ichthyornis and reassess shifts in bird body size across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Ichthyornis exhibited a wulst and segmented palate, previously proposed to have arisen within extant birds. The origin of Aves is marked by larger, reshaped brains indicating selection for relatively large telencephala and eyes but not by uniquely small body size. Sensory system differences, potentially linked to these shifts, may help explain avian survivorship relative to other dinosaurs.

Traits hypothesized to explain differential patterns of dinosaur survivorship of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction include aspects of neuroanatomy (1, 2) and feeding ecology (3, 4). Extant birds (Aves) have brains with relative volumes (5) and neuronal densities (6) that surpass all other reptiles (57). These traits may have provided a selective advantage over other dinosaurs in the face of rapidly changing environmental conditions at the K-Pg boundary. Dietary shifts associated with modification of the jaws and palate have also been proposed as drivers of both this survivorship and highly disparate diversification rates in the Early Paleogene (3, 8). Of the two basal-most avian lineages, Neognathae today comprises more than 10,000 extant species, while Palaeognathae is known from fewer than 100. This disparity in diversification has been hypothesized to have been driven by greater beak adaptability imparted by a mobile palate detached from the cranium, a feature historically considered derived for Neognathae (8). However, a paucity of well-preserved skulls from small-bodied outgroups of living birds has limited estimates of ancestral brain and craniofacial characteristics. This lack of data has confounded identification of unique crown traits demanded by hypotheses explaining K-Pg survivorship. Furthermore, body size and other traits proposed to have influenced dinosaur survivorship are known to scale allometrically (e.g., brain size, flight, growth rate, habitat preference, and metabolism) (4, 915). However, investigations of body mass evolution in Aves have rarely included data from the stem, allowing distantly related non-avialan theropods and basally diverging ratites, both large-bodied, to disproportionately influence ancestral avian body mass estimates.

Ichthyornis dispar is a toothed stem bird (Avialae) known from the Late Cretaceous of North America and has traditionally been considered the nearest known well-understood relative of extant birds (16, 17). Thus, Ichthyornis is essential to estimation of ancestral avian traits. Recent studies have cast uncertainty over the phylogenetic affinities of Ichthyornis recovering Late Cretaceous toothed bird Hesperornis as more closely related to extant birds (18, 19). Well-preserved skull material from Ichthyornis is rare, and although recent work has provided valuable insights on its cranial anatomy (18), crucial gaps remain, including the palatal and brain morphology. Early reconstructions of the brains of Ichthyornis and Hesperornis (16) were later shown to be hypothetical illustrations, lacking anatomical basis (20). The brain of Ichthyornis has been proposed based on a previously reported braincase (FHSM 18702) (18) to have a brain shaped like extant birds, including an expanded cerebrum and ventrally shifted optic lobes, although details about the brain shape in this specimen are obscured. Now, our only other published fossil insights into bird brain morphology in the Mesozoic come from the skulls of ~150-million-year (Ma) Archaeopteryx lithographica (1, 21) and Cerebavis cenomanica (2224). Archaeopteryx, the earliest known potentially volant avialan (25), had a brain shape more like non-avialan maniraptoran dinosaurs (e.g., Zanabazar and Incisivosaurus; figs. S1 and S2) than extant birds. By contrast, Cerebavis shows an expanded cerebrum and ventrally shifted optic lobes, although it is known only from an isolated partial skull, and its phylogenetic affinities remain unclear (2224). Better understanding of the Ichthyornis condition can help fill our >70-Ma gap in neuroanatomical data separating Archaeopteryx from extant birds.

We describe a specimen of I. dispar preserving a nearly complete skull (Fig. 1 and figs. S1 to S14) and use x-ray computed tomography (CT) to digitally reconstruct the facial skeleton (Fig. 1) and partial brain endocast (Fig. 2, A and B). We reinvestigate phylogenetic relationships within Avialae using a matrix of 223 morphological characters scored for 43 avian and non-avian birds. We test the effects of stem taxon sampling by first estimating ancestral avian body and relative brain size using a sample of 2003 avians, Archaeopteryx, and seven non-avialan dinosaurs. We then reestimate ancestral body mass with the addition of two sets of stem birds: First, we add data for 26 stem birds with well-understood phylogenetic affinities. Then, to that sample, we add data for 16 additional stem birds with poorly understood phylogenetic affinities but that provide insight into avialan body size immediately preceding the K-Pg mass extinction (see Materials and Methods) (19).

(A) Photograph of skull block including the neurocranium and partial upper and lower jaws. (B) Rendering of the skull block showing the position of the endocast (pink) relative to the cranium and nearby preserved facial elements (translucent white). (C) Photograph of the block including the premaxilla, left maxilla, and left palatine. Digital reconstructions of the facial skeleton in (D) lateral, (E) dorsal (mandible removed), and (F) ventral (mandible removed) views. Preserved elements are colored; symmetrical elements mirrored from the opposite side are in gray. Numbers correspond to novel insights from this specimen: 1, complete orbital process of the quadrate; 2, complete nasomaxillary contact; 3, segmented hemipterygoid. den, dentary; fr, frontals; hpt, hemipterygoid; ju, jugal; la, lacrimal; max, maxilla; mes, mesethmoid; na, nasal; nc, neurocranium; pa, palatine; pd, predentary; pman, posterior mandible; pre, premaxilla; qj, quadratojugal; qu, quadrate; vo?, tentative vomer. Photo credit: Christopher R. Torres, University of Texas at Austin.

(A and B) Reconstruction of the Ichthyornis endocast in (A) right lateral and (B) dorsal views. (C to H) CT slice data showing the endocranial surface in the area of the vallecula (arrowheads) in (C to E) coronal and (F to H) sagittal planes. Yellow, telencephalon; red, optic lobe; blue, cerebellum.

The endocast from the new specimen shows that Ichthyornis lacks the expanded cerebrum and ventrally shifted optic lobes characteristic of extant birds (Figs. 2 and 3). The braincase preserves impressions of the lateral sides of the telencephalon, optic lobes, and cerebellum, but the dorsal-most and ventral surfaces and rostral and caudal ends are lost to mediolateral crushing (Fig. 2, A and B). These data shed new light on the timing of the multiphase acquisition of the extant bird brain shape (Fig. 3). Basally diverging non-maniraptoran theropods (e.g., Tyrannosaurus and Alioramus) retained ancestrally linear brains with unexpanded cerebella and cerebra (26). Non-avialan maniraptoran dinosaurs (e.g., Zanabazar and Incisivosaurus) are marked by relative expansion of both these brain subregions coinciding with ventral deflection of the midbrain (including the optic lobes) and dorsal deflection of the cerebrum (1, 27, 28). Further expansion of the cerebellum occurred near the divergence of Avialae (e.g., Archaeopteryx), resulting in exclusion of the midbrain from the dorsal brain margin by contact between the cerebellum and the cerebrum (1, 21). Last, an episode of relative brain and cerebrum expansion has been shown to have occurred sometime after the divergence of Avialae (21), with optic lobes positioned entirely ventral to the cerebrum. Although the new endocast is incomplete, the position of the optic lobes relative to the mediolaterally widest point of the cerebrum strongly suggests that Ichthyornis had an Archaeopteryx-like brain shape. Thus, the most recent phase of bird brain shape change occurred near the origin of, and is synapomorphic for, extant birds. Unique expansion of the avian visual system may have been a driver of this reshaping. Among extant birds, eye size has been proposed to be correlated with and may constrain deflection of the optic lobes and cerebrum, relative cerebrum size, and relative brain size (29, 30). Despite the crown clade being marked by a derived brain shape, previous studies fail to recover shifts at the divergence of Aves in evolutionary rates of relative volume of either the total brain or individual regions (2, 31). However, these studies necessarily exclude data from stem birds due to a dearth of samples, obscuring any evolutionary shifts that might have occurred along the >70-Ma branch separating the divergences of Avialae and Aves. Better understanding of the sensory systems of non-avian dinosaurs will be crucial for elucidating the potential role of visual expansion as a driver of these shifts.

Ichthyornis exhibits an incipient wulst (Fig. 2), a derived cerebral structure previously thought to be restricted to living birds based on virtual reconstructions of osseous braincase architecture (1). In Aves, the wulst is a dorsal expansion of the cerebrum unique to birds among extant reptiles and that corresponds to a subregion of the cerebrum thought to be homologous to parts of the mammalian neocortex (3234). On the right dorsolateral surface of the Ichthyornis cerebrum, there is a shallow sulcus associated with a change in slope of the endocranial surface. Among extant birds, sulci in the dorsolateral surface of the brain correspond to the vallecular groove, demarcating the lateral margin of the wulst (Fig. 2) (7). A similar feature was tentatively identified in Archaeopteryx but was later shown to be a taphonomic artefact (1, 21). The original scan data of the corresponding preserved skull region in Ichthyornis where the dorsal deflection in slope is marked show no crushing and confirm that the structure observed here is natural (Fig. 2). The wulst is a visual processing center with a proposed role in flight but is more generally involved in somatosensory integration (32, 35). Although the presence of a wulst has been proposed to be the only recognized neuroanatomical correlate for flight among avialans (21, 35), if the wulst arose in response to increasingly efficient integration of sensory input imposed by flight, powered flight should have arisen first. This prediction is consistent with the apparent lack of a wulst in Archaeopteryx, the earliest known dinosaur capable of powered flight (25). However, as mentioned, the wulst is a brain structure with diverse functions not limited to those deployed in flight (32).

Ichthyornis is only the third Mesozoic taxon for which we have direct data on brain shape after Archaeopteryx and Cerebavis, and the new endocast sheds some light on the latter of these birds. The enigmatic 93-million-year-old C. cenomanica is known just from a poorly preserved, disarticulated braincase (2224). The phylogenetic affinities of Cerebavis are uncertain; it exhibited the expanded cerebrum and ventrally shifted optic lobes characteristic of Aves, but lacked the wulst here recovered as characteristic of at least the clade comprising Ichthyornis and Aves (24). If recovered either within Aves or as a closer relative to Aves than Ichthyornis, Cerebavis would represent a secondary loss of a projected wulst visible on the external surface of the brain, although not necessarily the underlying neuronal structures. Alternatively, Cerebavis, like some derived pterosaurs (36), may represent a taxon with an independent gain of an expanded cerebrum and deflected optic lobes.

The new specimen sheds new light on the ancestral avian palate (Fig. 4). In the new specimen, both palatines are preserved as elongate, mediolaterally broad elements with rostral processes projecting mediodorsally from the medial margins and conformed as rostrally oriented hooks (Figs. 1F and 4, A and B, and figs. S11 and S12). This is unlike the condition previously described for Ichthyornis (18) and observed in extant birds (Fig. 4, C to F) but is like other near-crown avialans, the Hesperornithiformes (37, 38). The right hemipterygoid is preserved in life position medial to the right palatine (Figs. 1F and 4A), the first evidence for the presence of this element in Ichthyornis. Shortly after most neognaths hatch, the pterygoid becomes segmented, with the anterior part (hemipterygoid) fusing to the palatine and the posterior part becoming the element recognized as the pterygoid in the adult bird (Fig. 4, C and D) (39). This process of pterygoid segmentation has been proposed as a synapomorphy for Neognathae and to be the prerequisite innovation to all other characteristics of the mobile neognath palate (40). This process is absent in all known palaeognaths, wherein the unsegmented pterygoid overlaps the palatine, and the palate is immobile (Fig. 4, E and F). This condition has historically been inferred as primitive for extant birds (41).

(A to F) Orange, pterygoid; purple, palatine; teal, hemipterygoid.

The presence of a hemipterygoid in Ichthyornis and multiple hesperornithiforms (37, 38) indicates that a segmented pterygoid, and possibly a mobile palate, arose before the divergence of extant birds and is likely ancestral for all of Aves. Zusi and Livezey (42) suggested that the intrapterygoid joint of Hesperornis was analogous to that observed in Neognathae rather than homologous based on the unique shape of the hesperornithine palatine. If so, the presence of such a joint in Ichthyornis would represent a third independent gain among closely related taxa. Instead, the presence in Ichthyornis of hesperornithine-like palatine and pterygoid morphologies in a neognath-like configuration of elements suggests that the intrapterygoid joint, and possibly the mobile palate observed in extant neognaths, was present at least as early as the divergence of Hesperornis. Fusion of the hemipterygoid to the palatine is absent in known near-crown stem birds and is so far unique to extant neognaths, and an unsegmented pterygoid is likely derived within Palaeognathae. This pattern may indicate that Aves was marked by a shift in palatal ontogeny, as the adult Ichthyornis-hesperornithine condition is only observed in juveniles among extant birds (39, 41, 42).

Adaptive plasticity of the beak associated with a mobile palate has been suggested to explain why neognaths, but not palaeognaths, explosively radiated in the Paleogene (8) but cannot alone explain the unique survivorship of Aves out of the Cretaceous. The mobile neognath palate has three components: articulation of the palatine and segmented pterygoid to the exclusion of the vomer; a mobile articulation between the palatine and pterygoid; and articulation between the parasphenoid and either the palatine, pterygoid, or both (42). Only the third of these components remains unknown in Hesperornis and, now, Ichthyornis, suggesting that these and possibly other Late Cretaceous near-crown stem bird had an incipient mobile palate (e.g., Iaceornis). The failure of these lineages, but not palaeognaths, to survive across the K-Pg boundary indicates that a detached palate alone likely did not influence survivorship dynamics.

Our phylogenetic analyses (see also the Supplementary Materials) recover Ichthyornis in its traditional place crown-ward of Hesperornithiformes as sister to a clade comprising Aves and the Late Cretaceous Iaceornis (Fig. 5A and figs. S15 to S20). Our results also shed further light on the phylogenetic affinities of two other Late Cretaceous birds, Vegavis and Asteriornis. Initially proposed to be a stem anatid within waterfowl (Anseriformes), the phylogenetic affinities of the Antarctic Vegavis have been controversial (4345). We recover Vegavis in its traditional place within crown group waterfowl in a polytomy with the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchus) and the Early Paleocene Antarctic bird Conflicto (Fig. 3) (46). The Belgian Asteriornis was initially recovered with affinities to Galloanserae or with Galliformes (47). We instead recover Asteriornis as potentially a stem palaeognath with very limited support (Fig. 3 and fig. S15). This result underscores the need for additional data to confidently resolve its phylogenetic affinities. Our unconstrained phylogenetic analyses including the 16 fragmentary single-element end-Cretaceous stem birds from Longrich et al. (19) resulted in uninformative polytomies (fig. S19) due to missing data, so we constrained their relationships to match those recovered by the original authors (fig. S20) for ancestral state reconstructions including these taxa.

(A) Body mass evolution across the avian stem. Ancestral body masses were estimated including 26 stem birds with well-supported phylogenetic affinities and mapped across the strict consensus tree from our primary phylogenetic analysis. Gray branches indicate taxa that were used to estimate phylogeny but not ancestral body mass reconstructions. Circles correspond to ancestral body masses estimated for major basal divergences within Aves including data from the total stem bird sample (pink), only stem birds with well-supported phylogenetic affinities (dark gray), and no stem birds except Archaeopteryx (light gray) and are to scale. (B) Comparison of body mass estimates of 1Cretaceous birds known from within 300 ka (thousand years) of the K-Pg boundary (19) to our body mass estimates for divergences within the crown clade and taxa from the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleogene, as well as 2model-based ancestral body masses for Aves, Neognathae, and Neoaves estimated previously (11) without inclusion of outgroup taxa. Cretaceous crown birds: 1, Conflicto antarcticus; 2, Asteriornis maastrichtensis; 3, Polarornis gregorii; 4, Vegavis iaai.

Estimates of avian body mass evolution are highly sensitive to outgroup sampling, underscoring the need to interpret the results of these analyses with extreme caution. Our analyses including data from only those stem birds with well-resolved phylogenetic affinities recovered an ancestral avian body mass of 7.7 kg (Wandering Albatrosssized) compared to 10.9 kg (swan-sized) when stem bird outgroups other than Archaeopteryx were excluded (Fig. 5A). This difference was even more pronounced when we expanded outgroup sampling to include poorly understood end-Cretaceous stem birds known from isolated elements. If these stem birds are included, we recover an ancestral body mass of 2.4 kg (eagle-sized). Our results demonstrate the disproportionate effect that mostly large-bodied palaeognaths and non-avialan dinosaurs had on states recovered by previous studies at the crown node in the absence of data from stem birds (2, 31). Total exclusion of any outgroup data results in an opposite phenomenon, with what are likely artificially low underestimates of ancestral avian body mass. Previous investigations relying on model-based approaches in lieu of outgroup sampling resulted in body mass estimates smaller than most Late Cretaceous stem birds (Fig. 5B) (11).

Our analyses failed to recover patterns in bird body mass evolution across the K-Pg boundary consistent with hypotheses that small body masses contributed to the unique survival of extant birds. We recovered an increase in body size from at least the divergence of Hesperornithiformes through the origin of extant birds, followed by continued increase in Palaeognathae and decrease early in Neognathae (Fig. 3A). Avian birds from either side of the K-Pg boundary were generally larger-bodied than end-Cretaceous stem birds (Fig. 5B) (11), albeit without statistically significant difference. Ancestral body masses for most major basal divergences within extant birds (i.e., Aves, Neognathae, Galloanserae, and Neoaves) were estimated to be larger than most end-Cretaceous stem birds regardless of which taxonomic subsample we used (Table 1). Our analysis represents one of the broadest samplings of body mass from stem birds yet published, but our understanding of Mesozoic bird diversity remains highly incomplete, and trends in body mass evolution may significantly change with future discoveries. These recovered trends will be influenced by revision of our understanding of stem bird phylogenetics. Inclusion of highly fragmentary, small-bodied birds from the Latest Cretaceous had a profound influence on estimated ancestral body masses (Fig. 5), but the phylogenetic affinities of these taxa are poorly understood. The relationships of several of these taxa to the crown clade, or even their inclusion within it, are ambiguous, and their treatment is likely to severely bias inferred ancestral trait values.

Ancestral body masses were estimated from three alternative outgroup samples: Total, total sample including stem birds with poorly resolved phylogenetic affinities (19); Sub, taxonomic subsample including only stem birds with well-resolved phylogenetic affinities; AO, Archaeopteryx only.

Estimation of ancestral avian brain size and other allometrically scaling traits that may have influenced end-Cretaceous extinction dynamics is highly sensitive to outgroup body mass sampling (Fig. 6 and Table 1). This effect is especially pronounced at the divergence of crown-group birds, with increased outgroup sampling recovering ancestral avian brain sizes more consistent with extant birds than non-avian dinosaurs (Fig. 6A). The recovered shift in relative brain size from the divergence of Avialae to the divergence of extant birds is increasingly marked based on sampling strategy (Fig. 6B). Thus, it is perhaps expected that recent investigations have failed to detect a significant shift in evolutionary rates of either total or regional brain volume at or near the divergence of extant birds in the absence of data from the avian stem (2, 31). Despite our increased body mass sampling along the avian stem, neuroanatomical data from these taxa remain lacking, suggesting that our estimates of ancestral avian brain size are likely still influenced by taxonomic bias. It is likely that our understanding of ancestral avian brain size will shift markedly with improved sampling.

(A) Brain size versus body size for extant birds (gray) and select non-avian dinosaurs (triangles) and a regression representing the ancestral avian and near-crown scaling relationship from (2). Increasingly dense outgroup body mass sampling (dark and pink) recovers ancestral avian relative brain size more consistent with extant birds than non-avian dinosaurs. (B) The same data depicted in (A) showing that increased outgroup body mass sampling recovers an increasingly marked shift in relative brain size from the divergences of total birds (Avialae) to major extant clades. 1Data for extant birds and non-avian dinosaurs and regression from (2).

Ancestral maniraptoran brain shape was retained by birds until at least the divergence of Ichthyornis (Fig. 2). Aves was marked by a major neuroanatomical reshaping relative to known outgroups, including inflation of the telencephalon and ventral deflection of the optic lobes (fig. S21). Our identification of this condition as synapomorphic for extant birds implicates it as a trait so far unique to the Paleogene survivors. Aves may also have been marked by a major increase in relative brain size (Fig. 6), but our understanding of brain size evolution remains highly sensitive to outgroup sampling. Small body size characterizes many volant birds from lineages that are not known past the latest Cretaceous (e.g., Enantiornithes and non-crown Ornithurae). Living bird lineages present before this event are estimated to have been larger than most contemporary stem birds (Fig. 5), inconsistent with previous hypotheses that relatively small body sizes provided the ancestors of extant birds a selective advantage in the face of the K-Pg mass extinction (11, 19). However, our analyses underscore the extreme sensitivity of ancestral body mass reconstructions to stem taxon sampling, casting uncertainty on the fidelity of these estimates both here and in all other studies to the true ancestral avian condition. We estimate the wulst and a segmented and possibly mobile palate arose before Aves (fig. S21), despite previously being considered features of that clade or derived within. The segmented palate may have arisen as a consequence of general reshaping of the skull associated with expansion of the brain that has been proposed to be linked to elaboration of the visual system (48). A combination of changes in craniofacial ontogeny, brain size, and shape is recovered as characterizing crown birds and may signal as yet poorly understood shifts in ecology that are linked to dinosaur survivorship.

Cranial material of the new Ichthyornis specimen (AMNH FARB 32773; fig. S1) was scanned at the University of Texas (UT) High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility in Austin, Texas, on an NSI scanner with a Fein Focus High Power source. The block containing the neurocranium was scanned on 25 February 2019 with the following settings: x-ray beam power of 150 kV/0.19 mA, pixel dimensions of 1869 989, 3665 total slices, and voxel size of 17.9 m. The blocks containing the premaxilla, left maxilla, and left palatine were scanned simultaneously on 11 February 2020 with the following settings: x-ray beam power of 160 kV/0.16 mA, pixel dimensions of 714 714, 1894 total slices, and voxel size of 30.8 m. Scan data are freely available on MorphoSource (media ID 000367065 and 000367056). CT scan data of Asteriornis were taken from Field et al. (47). We segmented the data using Avizo 2019.1 (Thermo Fisher Scientific) following the best practices proposed by Balanoff et al. (49), manipulated models in three-dimensional (3D) space using Netfabb 2019 (Autodesk), and rendered models using Avizo 2019.1 and Blender 2.91.0 (www.blender.org). Our retro-deformed reconstruction of the new skull is provided as STL files on MorphoSource (media ID 000367046).

To reinvestigate the relationship of Ichthyornis to other avialans, we modified the morphological character matrix first constructed by Clarke and Norell (50) and subsequently modified by Clarke et al. (51), Li et al. (52), Huang et al. (53), and, most recently, Field et al. (18). We added scorings to this matrix for proposed Late Cretaceous stem galloanserine Asteriornis maastrichtensis from Field et al. (47) and our digital reconstruction of its skull (fig. S22), Early Paleocene stem anseriform Conflicto antarcticus from Tambussi et al. (46), and proposed Late Cretaceous stem anatid Vegavis iaai from Clarke et al. (43). We made the following scoring changes for Ichthyornis: 8:1, 12:1, 43:1, and 222:1. We rescored character 221 for all birds lacking teeth from 1 (absent) to ? (unknown/noncomparable); the character describes the presence or absence of dental socketing along the region of the maxilla and dentary occupied by embryonic dental lamina, the presence of which we could not confirm in embryos of extant birds. We also removed two characters from the matrix. We considered original character 210, describing the anteroposterior location of the apex of the sternal carina, to be non-independent with character 72, describing the anterior extent of the carina proper. Original character 221, describing the relative contribution of the premaxilla to the margin of the jaw, was a duplicate of character 8. Last, to include the end-Cretaceous stem birds scored by Longrich et al. (19), we added 11 characters from their matrix, which was also a modification of the Clarke and Norell (50) matrix. Our final character matrix is provided in data file S1.

We analyzed the resulting character matrix in TNT 1.5 using an unconstrained traditional heuristic search with Wagner starting trees and all characters equally weighted. We performed 1000 replicates of random stepwise addition using the tree bisection and reconnection algorithm, with 10 trees saved per replication and branches with minimum lengths of 0 collapsed into polytomies. We used the resulting most parsimonious trees (MPTs) to calculate a strict consensus tree. That consensus tree was used in standard (sample with replacement) bootstrap analyses using a traditional search replicated 1000 times with results reported as absolute frequencies. To test the sensitivity of our results to taxonomic sampling, we analyzed our matrix using the following schema: Our primary unconstrained analysis included 9 avian birds, 32 stem birds plus Archaeopteryx, and Dromaeosauridae as outgroup (henceforth referred to as our core taxonomic sample). We then analyzed our core taxonomic sample plus Gansus yumenensis to test the sensitivity of our results to the latter taxons inclusion. To test the sensitivity of our results to constraints on the position of Asteriornis, we reanalyzed our core taxonomic sample with Asteriornis constrained to within Galloanserae and then constrained as a stem galloanserine. Last , we analyzed our taxonomic sample plus the 16 end-Cretaceous stem birds from Longrich et al. (19), both without constraints and constrained to match the relationships recovered by those authors.

To investigate the impact of data from the avian stem on estimates of ancestral avian body mass, we time-calibrated the strict consensus trees we recovered from both the analysis of our core taxonomic sample and the constrained analysis of our core taxonomic sample plus the 16 additional stem birds from Longrich et al. (19). First, we added seven non-avialan dinosaurs included in the analyses of Ksepka et al. (2) to our tree following the topology used by those authors. Then, for each extinct taxon in the tree, we obtained first and last appearance data from the literature, corresponding to the lower bound and upper bound of the formation(s) from which the taxon is known. Appearance data are provided in data file S2. We then used these data to calibrate the tree in R using the DatePhylo() function in the strap R package (54), with root length = 0.1 and using the equal method. Then, we extracted the clade comprising Aves from the Ksepka et al. (2) tree, scaled it to match the depth of that clade in our tree, and grafted it onto our time-calibrated tree. Last, we pruned the total tree to match those taxa for which we had either species body mass averages (extant species) or body mass estimates (extant plus extinct species).

Body masses for 26 stem birds were estimated using the correlation with femoral length estimated by Field et al. (55). The femoral lengths we used and their references, as well as estimated body masses, are provided in data file S3. Average species body mass for avians and all brain volume estimates were taken from Ksepka et al. (2). Our total body mass and brain volume dataset is provided in data file S4.

Ancestral body mass and brain volume were estimated separately in R using the fastAnc() function in the phytools R package (56). To investigate the impact of data from the avian stem on reconstructed ancestral body masses, we used three subsets in our taxonomic sample. The primary subset used 2002 avians, 27 non-avian avialans, and 7 non-avialan dinosaurs. The tree pruned to match this sample, as well as the reconstructed ancestral body masses, variances, and 95% confidence intervals are provided in data files S5 to S8. The second expanded taxonomic sample included the primary subset plus the 16 stem birds from Longrich et al. (19). The tree pruned to match this sample, as well as the reconstructed ancestral body masses, variances, and 95% confidence intervals are provided in data files S9 to S12. The final subset included only those taxa for which brain volumetric data were available (i.e., 2002 avians, Archaeopteryx, and seven non-avialan dinosaurs). The tree pruned to match this sample, as well as the reconstructed ancestral body masses, variances, and 95% confidence intervals are provided in data files S13 to S16. Ancestral brain volume reconstruction used the latter sample and tree. Reconstructed ancestral brain volumes, variances, and 95% confidence intervals are provided in data files S17 to S19. Ancestral relative brain size (i.e., encephalization) could not be directly reconstructed for any non-avian avialan except Archaeopteryx due to a lack of brain volume data from 25 stem birds added here. Instead, we calculated the ratio of brain volume to body mass for selected nodes using the corresponding values estimated from each of the above ancestral state reconstructions.

When Gansus was excluded, our analysis yielded six MPTs with 605 steps. These trees plus the strict consensus tree (fig. S16) are provided in data file S20. We recovered Ichthyornis in its traditional position next to a clade comprising Iaceornis plus Aves with weak bootstrap support (26), supported by six synapomorphies: completely fused premaxillae (1:2), presence of ossified connective tissue bridging transverse processes of thoracic vertebrae (59:1), presence of three sacral vertebrae that are short with dorsally directed parapophyses just anterior to the acetabulum (62:1), presence of pneumatic foramen/foramina on the dorsal surface of the sternum (73:1), flat to convex area of the foramen n. supracoracoideus on the medial surface of the coracoid (98:1), and presence of a facet for articulation with the furcula on the acrocoracoid of the coracoid (227:1).

We recovered Iaceornis next to Aves to the exclusion of Ichthyornis with moderate bootstrap support (55) based on four synapomorphies: presence of paired, raised intermuscular ridges on the sternum (77:1); the tip of the extensor process of metacarpal I conspicuously surpasses articular facet by approximately the width of the facet, producing a pronounced knob (143:4); metacarpal III extends farther distally than metacarpal II (148:1); and conformation of the extensor canal on the tibia/tarsal formed condyles as a groove bridged by an ossified supratendinal bridge (182:2).

We recovered the Late Cretaceous V. iaai and the Early Paleocene C. antarcticus, both from the Antarctic Peninsula, in a polytomy with the Mallard with low bootstrap support (24) based on three synapomorphies: presence of pneumatization on the coracoid (91:0); metacarpal II is subequal to or surpasses metacarpal III in distal extent (149:0); and presence of a hypertrophied, shelf-like posterior trochanter on the femur (172:0). Vegavis was originally described as a stem anatid (43), but subsequent analyses variously recovered it as a stem anseriform (57), stem galloanserine (45), or stem avian (47, 58). Our results are consistent with the original placement as a stem anatid, but our low bootstrap support highlights the need for more data to confidently place Vegavis.

The Late Cretaceous A. maastrichtensis was originally described and recovered as a stem galloanserine (47). By contrast, our unconstrained analyses recovered Asteriornis as a stem Palaeognathae with low bootstrap support (12) based on one synapomorphy: a strongly posteriorly forked dentary with the dorsal and ventral rami approximately equal in posterior extent (42:1). Constraining Asteriornis to a clade also including the other galloanserines in our sample resulted in 24 MPTs with 606 steps (one more than when unconstrained; fig. S17), provided in data file S21. This analysis resulted in a weakly supported (bootstrap = 38) polytomy comprising Asteriornis, Conflicto, Vegavis, Chauna torquata, Anas, and Galliformes (Pauxi pauxi + Gallus gallus). Constraining Asteriornis to the stem of Galloanserae resulted in six MPTs with 606 steps (one more than when unconstrained; fig. S18), provided in data file S22. This analysis resulted in a moderately supported (bootstrap = 52) polytomy including Asteriornis, Palaeognathae, Galliformes, and Anseriformes. Together, these results indicate a need for more data before Asteriornis can confidently be placed within Aves.

When our analysis included Gansus, we recovered 14 MPTs with 616 steps (fig. S19). These trees are provided in data file S23. We recovered Ichthyornis in a polytomy also including Hesperornithiformes, Iaceornis, Asteriornis, Palaeognathae, Neognathae, and several other near-crown stem taxa with low bootstrap support (8).

When we included the 17 end-Cretaceous stem birds from Longrich et al. (19) and excluded Gansus in an unconstrained analysis, we recovered 4710 MPTs with 610 steps (fig. S20); MPTs and strict consensus are provided in data file S24. We recovered Ichthyornis in a polytomy also including Galliformes, Hesperornithiformes, and several other crown and near-crown taxa with very low bootstrap support (5). Because this unconstrained analysis failed to recover the relationships recovered by Longrich et al. (19), we reanalyzed this matrix constrained to match those relationships, and we recovered 7030 MPTs with 610 steps (fig. S21); MPTs and strict consensus tree are provided in data file S25.

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Acknowledgments: We thank C. Bonner and B. Shelton for long-standing efforts collecting in the Chalk, which made this research possible. We thank M. Ecklund for exquisite preparatory work. For specimen access, we thank C. Mehling (AMNH) as well as K. Bader and C. Sagebiel [University of Texas at Austin (UT)]. For CT scanning, we thank M. Colbert and J. Maisano (UT). For additional images, we thank C. Marrill (AMNH). For comments and discussion, we thank H. Bilger, D. Cannatella, M. Chiappone N. Crouch, S. Davis, D. Hillis, L. Legendre, J. Muhammad, G. Musser, J. Nelson, C. Rodriguez, C. Urban, and H. Zakon (UT); S. Edwards (Harvard University); and P. OConnor (Ohio University). For helpful comments on improving our manuscript, we thank three anonymous reviewers. Funding: This work was funded by Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Program GT10473 (JAC), UT Graduate School Continuing Fellowship (CRT), American Museum of Natural History, and Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin. Author contributions: Conceptualization: M.A.N. and J.A.C.; methodology: C.R.T. and J.A.C.; investigation: C.R.T.; visualization: C.R.T.; supervision: J.A.C.; writing (original draft): C.R.T.; writing (review and editing): C.R.T., M.A.N., and J.A.C. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data are freely available in the Supplementary Materials and on MorphoSource (media ID: 000367046, 000367056, and 000367065).

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Bird neurocranial and body mass evolution across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction: The avian brain shape left other dinosaurs behind - Science...