The Google AdWords Certification Program awards individuals and companies that demonstrate a high degree of competence in the management pay-per-click campaigns.?
Milton, Ontario (PRWEB) November 30, 2012 -?WSI Milton is proud to announce that resident Search Engine Marketing Coordinator Amanda Johnson has achieved the first level of this designation. ?WSI Milton is thrilled to announce Google?s official endorsement of their search engine marketing services. Amanda Johnson, the firm?s Search Engine Marketing Coordinator, successfully completed the first level of the certification process on November 17th.
Proven competency in the use of the AdWords tool is what merits the first level of Google AdWords Qualification. By demonstrating an in-depth understanding of pay-per-click advertising, including reporting and analysis, Johnson secured an exceptionally high ranking score on the certification exam. She now possesses a globally recognized stamp of approval from the company ranked 73rd on the fortune 500.
The benefits of running a pay-per-click campaign are robust. If a product or service is in a highly competitive industry, running a search engine advertisement is the only guaranteed way to secure a spot at the top of the results. They are a great way to reach consumers who are ready to buy, and they offer the manager a high degree of control and analytics to measure the campaign?s success.
WSI Milton uses search engine advertising as a component of their comprehensive online marketing services for small to medium sized business clients. In addition to search engine advertising and optimization, the firm provides content writing, inbound marketing, email marketing, responsive web design, and social media services. They specialize in the home improvement and landscaping industries, as well as B2B distributors.
The team at WSI Milton has also recently been recognized by the Web Marketing Association with a 2012 WebAward for the design of home remodeling company Granite Transformations website. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in web development, and reinforces the firm?s already stellar reputation and proven track record.
For more information about online lead generation, download WSI Milton?s Free 10 Step Guide to Capturing Better Sales Leads Online.
About WSI Milton
WSI Milton is a subsidiary of WSI (We Simplify the Internet), the world?s premier internet franchise that offers online marketing services to small and medium-sized businesses. Through applying their expertise in internet marketing, the WSI Milton team has helped numerous businesses benefit from a well crafted online presence.
Contact:
Jason Gervais WSI Milton http://www.yourwsiadvantage.com 1-877-793-2764
New approach allows past data to be used to improve future climate projectionsPublic release date: 29-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kristina Baer medien@awi.de 49-047-148-312-139 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Climate scientists are still grappling with one of the main questions of modern times: how high will global temperatures rise if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide doubles. Many researchers are turning to the past because it holds clues to how nature reacted to climate change before the anthropogenic impact. The divergent results of this research, however, have made it difficult to make precise predictions about the impact of increased carbon dioxide on future warming. An international team of scientists have evaluated previously published estimates and assigned them consistent categories and terminology. This process should assist in limiting the range of estimates and make it easier to compare data from past climate changes and projections about future warming. The group has presented its new method in the current edition of the journal Nature.
The research group summarized, classified and compared data from more than 20 studies to make a potential prognosis about the expected future rise in the world's temperature. In these palaeoclimate studies climate sensitivity has been reconstructed on the basis of data derived from ice and sediment core. Climate sensitivity is a key parameter in the study of climate change. It describes the rise of the mean temperature of the earth's surface due to changes in the climate system. Specifically, its value represents the increase in global temperatures calculated by climate models, if the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere doubles. Here, models were initialised with pre-industrial carbon dioxide concentrations.
The team was then faced with the challenge of comparing the assembled studies. Each study spoke of "climate sensitivity", but not all took the same factors into account. "We had to elaborate all the different assumptions and uncertainties, such as which studies look exclusively at carbon dioxide and which considered other greenhouse gases such as methane or the effect of reflection, the so called albedo, from ice surfaces. Only then could we compare the data. We also calculated the climate sensitivity data if we only considered greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide or added in albedo", explained Dr Peter Khler, one of the article's main authors and climatologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, part of the Helmholtz Association.
The research group was able to use its new method to differentiate ten different kinds of climate sensitivity. In a second phase of the project, they then worked on devising consistent terminology and concrete definitions. The new classification system should prevent future researchers from publishing widely divergent estimates of climate sensitivity based on differing assumptions. "Ideally, it should be clear from the start of a study what kind of climate sensitivity is being addressed. The factors considered by the researchers to be driving temperature change should be clear from the language used. Our terminology offers a conceptual framework to calculate climate sensitivity based on past climate data. We hope that this will improve evaluation of future climate projections", adds Khler.
This work represents a significant advance for climatology. It is the first summary of what scientists have been able to reconstruct about climate sensitivity based on data from the past 65 million years and the assumptions that were behind the data. It also demonstrates that the climate forecasts in the IPCC reports agreed with the estimates of how nature has reacted to changes in the climate through the course of the earth's history.
The research team has not, however, achieved one of its goals. "We had hoped to limit the range of current assumptions about climate sensitivity. In its last report, the IPCC summarised that the global temperature would rise 2.1 to 4.4 degrees C if the atmospheric carbon dioxide level rises to double the pre-industrial values. As it turns out, our climate sensitivity values are currently within this same range" says Dr Khler.
Further open questions will have to be addressed in order to obtain more precise figures. Scientists know, for example, that climate sensitivity depends on the predominant background climate at the time, i.e. whether climate is in an ice age or a warm age. But exactly how this background climate impacts climate sensitivity still has to be answered. The climatologists behind this study hope that the new conceptual framework will push further research in this direction.
The article is the outcome of a three-day colloquium held last year at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam, attended by more than 30 specialists in the field.
###
The original article is entitled "Making sense of palaeoclimate sensitivity" and appeared in the 29 November issue of Nature. (doi: 10.1038/nature11574), Vol 491, pages 683-691.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New approach allows past data to be used to improve future climate projectionsPublic release date: 29-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Kristina Baer medien@awi.de 49-047-148-312-139 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Climate scientists are still grappling with one of the main questions of modern times: how high will global temperatures rise if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide doubles. Many researchers are turning to the past because it holds clues to how nature reacted to climate change before the anthropogenic impact. The divergent results of this research, however, have made it difficult to make precise predictions about the impact of increased carbon dioxide on future warming. An international team of scientists have evaluated previously published estimates and assigned them consistent categories and terminology. This process should assist in limiting the range of estimates and make it easier to compare data from past climate changes and projections about future warming. The group has presented its new method in the current edition of the journal Nature.
The research group summarized, classified and compared data from more than 20 studies to make a potential prognosis about the expected future rise in the world's temperature. In these palaeoclimate studies climate sensitivity has been reconstructed on the basis of data derived from ice and sediment core. Climate sensitivity is a key parameter in the study of climate change. It describes the rise of the mean temperature of the earth's surface due to changes in the climate system. Specifically, its value represents the increase in global temperatures calculated by climate models, if the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere doubles. Here, models were initialised with pre-industrial carbon dioxide concentrations.
The team was then faced with the challenge of comparing the assembled studies. Each study spoke of "climate sensitivity", but not all took the same factors into account. "We had to elaborate all the different assumptions and uncertainties, such as which studies look exclusively at carbon dioxide and which considered other greenhouse gases such as methane or the effect of reflection, the so called albedo, from ice surfaces. Only then could we compare the data. We also calculated the climate sensitivity data if we only considered greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide or added in albedo", explained Dr Peter Khler, one of the article's main authors and climatologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, part of the Helmholtz Association.
The research group was able to use its new method to differentiate ten different kinds of climate sensitivity. In a second phase of the project, they then worked on devising consistent terminology and concrete definitions. The new classification system should prevent future researchers from publishing widely divergent estimates of climate sensitivity based on differing assumptions. "Ideally, it should be clear from the start of a study what kind of climate sensitivity is being addressed. The factors considered by the researchers to be driving temperature change should be clear from the language used. Our terminology offers a conceptual framework to calculate climate sensitivity based on past climate data. We hope that this will improve evaluation of future climate projections", adds Khler.
This work represents a significant advance for climatology. It is the first summary of what scientists have been able to reconstruct about climate sensitivity based on data from the past 65 million years and the assumptions that were behind the data. It also demonstrates that the climate forecasts in the IPCC reports agreed with the estimates of how nature has reacted to changes in the climate through the course of the earth's history.
The research team has not, however, achieved one of its goals. "We had hoped to limit the range of current assumptions about climate sensitivity. In its last report, the IPCC summarised that the global temperature would rise 2.1 to 4.4 degrees C if the atmospheric carbon dioxide level rises to double the pre-industrial values. As it turns out, our climate sensitivity values are currently within this same range" says Dr Khler.
Further open questions will have to be addressed in order to obtain more precise figures. Scientists know, for example, that climate sensitivity depends on the predominant background climate at the time, i.e. whether climate is in an ice age or a warm age. But exactly how this background climate impacts climate sensitivity still has to be answered. The climatologists behind this study hope that the new conceptual framework will push further research in this direction.
The article is the outcome of a three-day colloquium held last year at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam, attended by more than 30 specialists in the field.
###
The original article is entitled "Making sense of palaeoclimate sensitivity" and appeared in the 29 November issue of Nature. (doi: 10.1038/nature11574), Vol 491, pages 683-691.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The black pouch worn around Sam Garcia's hips connected a small needle with her port, delivering high dosages of chemo as she mingled with family at her hair salon on Lilac Lane.
She doesn't cut hair when she's taking chemo.
Her son, Christian, 24, clips a man's hair as she watches nearby. Christian moved back from Corpus Christi when he got the news that this time was bad.
"Cancer does not dictate my life," she said.
She's stubborn, and admits it. She's become an expert at hiding her pain and nausea, her fear and stress, her acceptance of death.
"I'm terminal," Garcia said, in the same plain tone someone might say "I'm hot" or "I'm sleepy."
When she was first diagnosed with colon cancer in February 2010, she said she cried for days with her partner, Tabithia San Miguel, 35.
"But after that, I was over it," Garcia said. "I wasn't going to turn this into a grim thing."
The 44-year-old stylist underwent 12 rounds of chemo that year before her oncologist said it was in remission.
But in March, the cancer came roaring back, this time spreading to her lungs and blood stream.
According to the American Cancer Society, excluding skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States.
About 150,000 Americans are diagnosed annually with colorectal cancer, and more than 50,000 die from it.
With terminal cancer, there is no time to waste on anger, denial or self-pity. The time you have is all you have, not a minute more.
"I'm not going to let this cancer get me down," Garcia said. "I've always enjoyed life."
Although the prognosis is terminal, Garcia does not give in to it.
"We're all going to pass, but I'm not giving up," Garcia said. "People shouldn't give up the fight. There's a lot to look forward to."
She looks forward to becoming a grandmother at the end of April.
She has cancer of the body, not of the spirit.
"I'm a little young to be a grandmother, but I welcome it," Garcia said. "I welcome being 60, 70, 80 and 90."
But when Garcia talks about a Christian retreat she wants to attend in January, she speaks with uncertainty - adding, "If I make it..."
San Miguel said, "Sometimes she puts on that she's stronger than what she is."
On her good days, there's laughter and smiles. On bad days, it's emotional, stressful and filled with fear.
San Miguel doubts she would be as strong - "I don't cry around her."
San Miguel said she is lucky to work for Alcoa, a company that extends medical benefits to same-sex couples.
"God does miracles sometimes, and this is one of them," she said. Garcia "was in remission, and I pushed for it at work. I dug for it because I knew it (insurance) was available."
At the beginning of 2012, before Garcia's cancer came back, she was able to get on San Miguel's insurance policy.
However, they're both paying off expensive bills from the old cancer.
They are hosting an all-day benefit Jan. 13 at Club Westerner to raise money to help with bills. The benefit includes a motorcycle fun run, a raffle for a Yamaha motorcycle, a barbecue luncheon and an auction.
Each chemotherapy treatment cost from $13,000 to $15,000, San Miguel said. To date, Garcia has received 26 treatments, but even with insurance they're left covering 20 percent of all expenses.
"I really don't want to do chemo, but I have to," Garcia said. "It's the only way I can stay alive."
Despite her black hands, feet and tongue - all marks of chemo burns - her body withstands it.
Maybe she's tough from a childhood spent around strong men and boy cousins.
"Little Bull" - growing up, that's what Garcia's dad called her.
She enjoys wrestling and play fights, and watching Cowboys and Spurs games.
Maybe her strength comes from somewhere else.
She attended her first ACTS retreat - short for Adoration, Community, Theology, and Service - in January, before the cancer came back.
"That retreat made me strong," Garcia said. "It helped set my foundation."
Even her partner noticed a change once Garcia returned home.
"Her love for everybody has grown, and you can see that with other people," San Miguel said.
She carries the light of God with her, San Miguel said.
"We all have a plan," Garcia said. "God has a plan for all of us."
She still enjoys singing "torch songs" by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston and dancing to '80s music in the car. She works at her salon when she is not receiving chemotherapy.
However, the chemotherapy has changed a lot about her life, dictating her diet and appearance.
She admitted Tuesday was not one of her good days.
"It'll get better," she said. "If it doesn't, 80s music always helps."
Friends and family are gathering to honor Sam Garcia by building a "Fight for Sam" float for Victoria's Lighted Christmas Parade on Saturday.
Ray Ortega, who is coordinating the effort, said Garcia's outlook almost brought him to tears.
"A lot of people would say, 'Well I want to go to New York, Vegas or somewhere exotic,' but she humbled herself for a parade," he said. "She's going to get a parade."
Garcia is expanding the scope to include all types cancers, and wants to invite area cancer survivors and patients to join her in the battle. Unity, she said, is the goal.
• What: "Sam's Fight" float for all cancer patients and survivors in Victoria's Lighted Christmas Parade
• When and where: 6 p.m. Saturday, downtown Victoria
• For more info about joining Sam's float, contact Ray Ortega at rayortega@quailtools.com or Ann Margaret Gonzales at amgonzales15@yahoo.com
"I JUST have to say pretty bluntly here: we've been there before." So said President Obama in 2010 as he ruled out a return to the moon. But there are signs on the NASA grapevine and from the world of commercial space flight that humans are once more headed that way.
A NASA crewed mission to lunar orbit could focus on exploring the moon's dark side and testing technologies to speed up exploration of Mars and other planets. Unfettered by the demands of state funding, a private mission may attempt something even more novel.
Since Obama's speech, there have been hints that NASA might be changing its tune. Rumour has it that the agency plans to build a hovering moon base about 60,000 kilometres above the moon's far side at a Lagrange point, where the pull of Earth's gravity cancels out the moon's. From this point ? called L2 ? astronauts would steer rovers round the surface in close to real time, much cheaper than actually landing on the moon.
NASA hasn't commented on the rumour, but the European Space Agency says it is collaborating with NASA on two lunar missions, one crewed and scheduled for 2019 (see "Europe has right stuff to take NASA back to moon").
Unexplored world
What's more, Jack Burns of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and colleagues, two of whom work for NASA, have written a paper, to appear in Advances in Space Research, that suggests what a mission to the far side might achieve (arxiv.org/abs/1211.3462).
An unexplored wilderness, the far side hosts one of the solar system's oldest and largest impact basins, the 8 kilometre deep South Pole-Aitkin basin, flagged as a research priority by the US National Research Council in 2011. It could help fill in a timeline for early solar system evolution and discover if impactors brought organics to the infant Earth. "The far side is effectively a whole new unexplored world in our own backyard," says Burns.
It may also be the only place near to Earth where it is possible to observe when and how the first stars and galaxies formed from the neutral hydrogen atoms that filled space in these cosmic "dark ages". The light from those ancient hydrogen atoms is still reaching Earth now, but gets drowned out by the ionosphere and signals from human technology.
Brains in orbit
Why control robots from L2, not Earth? It's a dry run for Mars, Burns says. The ability to hover above the Red Planet and operate robots on its surface would be a huge advantage. Currently, there is a 20-minute time lag each way when Earth talks to the Mars rover Curiosity, so each night the team sends up all the instructions for the next day. That makes things slow ? if something goes wrong you won't even know about it until the next day, let alone be able to fix it. Burns believes that space exploration in future will involve wheels, not (moon) boots, on the ground, and human brains in orbit.
Mars isn't the limit, adds Dan Lester of the University of Texas at Austin: "We could send human beings into orbit around Titan. They could do virtual scuba diving in the methane lakes." Burns's team is presenting the idea to NASA this week.
But wouldn't it be disappointing to merely orbit the moon or Mars, without planting any flags? Enter private companies. In recent weeks, space-minded media have been abuzz with a rumour that a new private outfit, allegedly staffed by former NASA astronauts and engineers, would soon announce its intention to put humans on the moon.
Even if it doesn't pan out, commercial outfits may be the ones to raise the funds for a crewed mission. Options include mining, tourism or even carrying out the stunt for the sake of publicity. A commercial mission may yet boldly go where governments fear to tread.
Reference: arxiv.org/abs/1211.3462
Read more: "Europe has right stuff to take NASA back to moon"
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FOX19 has teamed up with the Hamilton County Public Library to bring all of our fans a look back at great moments in Cincinnati history.
Starting with?our city's founding in 1788, the historians at the library have dug deep into their extensive archives to provide our Facebook fans with photos and background for the events that moved Cincinnati.
Each event on our timeline includes photos and stories about what led to that particular moment in history.
We add new ones a few times a month.?
Here's a look at the list so far:
1812 -?First Steamboat navigates Ohio River
1828 -?Opening of the Cincinnati section of the Miami & Erie Canal
1834 -?Lane Seminary Anti-Slavery Debates
1840 - Cincinnati becomes largest meatpacking center
1848 -?First photograph of Cincinnati taken
1849 -?Breweries
1869 -?Cincinnati Red Stockings
1889 -?First Electric Streetcar
Every week or so, we add a new event to our?Facebook timeline.
Stay updated with the new ones by joining the 61,000 people who have already liked the?FOX19 Facebook page.
Also be sure to like the?Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County?for their great updates on events, and media available at your local library.
The Supreme Court on Monday ordered an appeals court to consider the underlying merits of Liberty University?s lawsuit ? including whether Obamacare violates religious freedom.
By Warren Richey,?Staff writer / November 26, 2012
The US Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for further litigation over the constitutionality of President Obama?s health-care reform law.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
In a somewhat unusual maneuver, the high court agreed to send one of several cases challenging the Affordable Care Act (ACA) back to a federal appeals court to consider the underlying merits of the lawsuit ? including whether the measure violates religious freedom.
In late June, the Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to uphold the ACA as a valid exercise of Congress?s taxing authority. The ruling forced the dismissal of a handful of other cases challenging the reform law. Among them was an appeal filed on behalf of Liberty University, a small Christian college in Lynchburg, Va.
Unlike the other cases being held pending the high court?s June decision, Liberty University?s case arrived at the Supreme Court after being dismissed on jurisdictional grounds by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
The appeals court had ruled 2 to 1 that the federal Anti-Injunction Act prevented the appellate judges from considering the underlying merits of Liberty University?s lawsuit. So Liberty University never received a ruling at the appeals court on the individual allegations it was making in its complaint.
That?s what the Supreme Court on Monday ordered be done.
Mathew Staver, a lawyer representing Liberty University, had asked the court to reinstate the lawsuit and send it back to the Fourth Circuit to address the merits of the unresolved claims.
The court asked the Obama administration what it thought of the request. Administration lawyers told the court that they did not object. US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli added, however, that his office believed Liberty?s claims were without merit.
It is unclear how the Fourth Circuit will view Liberty?s newly focused case, but the three-judge panel was not particularly friendly to Liberty?s lawsuit the first time around.
The unresolved aspects of the suit involve the ACA?s requirement that companies with 50 or more employees provide a government-approved level of health insurance or pay a penalty.
The suit also alleges that the reform law forces members of Liberty University?s community to jettison their religious beliefs by paying into a required health-care system that they believe supports and funds abortions.
The suit charges that a religious exemption included in the ACA violates the First Amendment prohibition on excessive entanglement of government and religion. The ACA places the government in a position to decide which religions are authentic and deserving of an exemption and which are not, the suit says.
Implantable silk optics multi-task in the bodyPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alex Reid alexander.reid@tufts.edu 617-627-4173 Tufts University
Dissolvable micro-mirrors enhance imaging, administer heat, deliver and monitor drugs
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (November 28, 2012) Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have demonstrated silk-based implantable optics that offer significant improvement in tissue imaging while simultaneously enabling photo thermal therapy, administering drugs and monitoring drug delivery. The devices also lend themselves to a variety of other biomedical functions.
Biodegradable and biocompatible, these tiny mirror-like devices dissolve harmlessly at predetermined rates and require no surgery to remove them.
The technology is the brainchild of a research team led by Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts. For several years, Omenetto; David L. Kaplan, Stern Family Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering chair, and their colleagues have been exploring ways to leverage silk's optical capabilities with its capacity as a resilient, biofriendly material that can stabilize materials while maintaining their biochemical functionality.
The technology is described in the paper "Implantable Multifunctional Bioresorbable Optics," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online Early Edition the week of November 12, 2012.
"This work showcases the potential of silk to bring together form and function. In this case an implantable optical form -- the mirror -- can go beyond imaging to serve multiple biomedical functions," Omenetto says.
Turning Silk into Mirrors
To create the optical devices, the Tufts bioengineers poured a purified silk protein solution into molds of multiple micro-sized prism reflectors, or microprism arrays (MPAs). They pre-determined the rates at which the devices would dissolve in the body by regulating the water content of the solution during processing. The cast solution was then air dried to form solid silk films in the form of the mold. The resulting silk sheets were much like the reflective tape found on safety garments or on traffic signs.
When implanted, these MPAs reflected back photons that are ordinarily lost with reflection-based imaging technologies, thereby enhancing imaging, even in deep tissue.
The researchers tested the devices using solid and liquid "phantoms" (materials that mimic the scattering that occurs when light passes through human tissue). The tiny mirror-like devices reflected substantially stronger optical signals than implanted silk films that had not been formed as MPAs.
Preventing Infection, Fighting Cancer
The Tufts researchers also demonstrated the silk mirrors' potential to administer therapeutic treatments.
In one experiment, the researchers mixed gold nanoparticles in the silk protein solution before casting the MPAs. They then implanted the gold-silk mirror under the skin of mice. When illuminated with green laser light, the nanoparticles converted light to heat. Similar in-vitro experiments showed that the devices inhibited bacterial growth while maintaining optical performance.
The team also embedded the cancer-fighting drug doxorubicin in the MPAs. The embedded drug remained active even at high temperatures (60 degree C), underscoring the ability of silk to stabilize chemical and biological dopants.
When exposed to enzymes in vitro, the doxorubicin was released as the mirror gradually dissolved. The amount of reflected light decreased as the mirror degraded, allowing the researchers to accurately assess the rate of drug delivery.
"The important implication here is that using a single biofriendly, resorbable device one could image a site of interest, such as a tumor, apply therapy as needed and then monitor the progress of the therapy," says Omenetto.
###
Collaborating with Omenetto and Kaplan from Tufts Department of Biomedical Engineering were Hu Tao, research assistant professor; Jana M. Kainerstorfer, post-doctoral researcher; Sean M. Siebert, a Tufts undergraduate; Eleanor M. Pritchard, former post-doctoral researcher; Angelo Sassaroli, research assistant professor; Bruce J.B. Panilaitis, research assistant professor; Mark A. Brenckle, graduate student; Jason Amsden, former post-doctoral researcher; Jonathan Levitt, post-doctoral researcher, and Professor Sergio Fantini.
At Tufts, Fiorenzo Omenetto also has an appointment in the Department of Physics in the School of Arts and Sciences, and David Kaplan also has appointments in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Department of Chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Dental Medicine.
The work was supported by the United States Army Research Laboratory, the United States Army Research Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Tissue Engineering Resource Center of the National Institutes of Health under award number P41EB00250 and the National Science Foundation.
Tao, H., Kainerstorfer, J.M., Siebert, S.M., Pritchard, E.M., Sassaroli, A., Panilaitis, B., Brenckle, M.A., Amsden, J., Levitt, J., Fantini, S., Kaplan, D. L., and Omenetto, F.G. (2012),.Implantable Multifunctional Bioresorbable Optics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Doi:10.1073/pnas.1209056109
Tufts University School of Engineering
Located on Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus, the School of Engineering offers a rigorous engineering education in a unique environment that blends the intellectual and technological resources of a world-class research university with the strengths of a top-ranked liberal arts college. Close partnerships with Tufts' excellent undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, coupled with a long tradition of collaboration, provide a strong platform for interdisciplinary education and scholarship. The School of Engineering's mission is to educate engineers committed to the innovative and ethical application of science and technology in addressing the most pressing societal needs, to develop and nurture twenty-first century leadership qualities in its students, faculty, and alumni, and to create and disseminate transformational new knowledge and technologies that further the well-being and sustainability of society in such cross-cutting areas as human health, environmental sustainability, alternative energy, and the human-technology interface.
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?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Implantable silk optics multi-task in the bodyPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Alex Reid alexander.reid@tufts.edu 617-627-4173 Tufts University
Dissolvable micro-mirrors enhance imaging, administer heat, deliver and monitor drugs
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (November 28, 2012) Tufts University School of Engineering researchers have demonstrated silk-based implantable optics that offer significant improvement in tissue imaging while simultaneously enabling photo thermal therapy, administering drugs and monitoring drug delivery. The devices also lend themselves to a variety of other biomedical functions.
Biodegradable and biocompatible, these tiny mirror-like devices dissolve harmlessly at predetermined rates and require no surgery to remove them.
The technology is the brainchild of a research team led by Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts. For several years, Omenetto; David L. Kaplan, Stern Family Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering chair, and their colleagues have been exploring ways to leverage silk's optical capabilities with its capacity as a resilient, biofriendly material that can stabilize materials while maintaining their biochemical functionality.
The technology is described in the paper "Implantable Multifunctional Bioresorbable Optics," published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online Early Edition the week of November 12, 2012.
"This work showcases the potential of silk to bring together form and function. In this case an implantable optical form -- the mirror -- can go beyond imaging to serve multiple biomedical functions," Omenetto says.
Turning Silk into Mirrors
To create the optical devices, the Tufts bioengineers poured a purified silk protein solution into molds of multiple micro-sized prism reflectors, or microprism arrays (MPAs). They pre-determined the rates at which the devices would dissolve in the body by regulating the water content of the solution during processing. The cast solution was then air dried to form solid silk films in the form of the mold. The resulting silk sheets were much like the reflective tape found on safety garments or on traffic signs.
When implanted, these MPAs reflected back photons that are ordinarily lost with reflection-based imaging technologies, thereby enhancing imaging, even in deep tissue.
The researchers tested the devices using solid and liquid "phantoms" (materials that mimic the scattering that occurs when light passes through human tissue). The tiny mirror-like devices reflected substantially stronger optical signals than implanted silk films that had not been formed as MPAs.
Preventing Infection, Fighting Cancer
The Tufts researchers also demonstrated the silk mirrors' potential to administer therapeutic treatments.
In one experiment, the researchers mixed gold nanoparticles in the silk protein solution before casting the MPAs. They then implanted the gold-silk mirror under the skin of mice. When illuminated with green laser light, the nanoparticles converted light to heat. Similar in-vitro experiments showed that the devices inhibited bacterial growth while maintaining optical performance.
The team also embedded the cancer-fighting drug doxorubicin in the MPAs. The embedded drug remained active even at high temperatures (60 degree C), underscoring the ability of silk to stabilize chemical and biological dopants.
When exposed to enzymes in vitro, the doxorubicin was released as the mirror gradually dissolved. The amount of reflected light decreased as the mirror degraded, allowing the researchers to accurately assess the rate of drug delivery.
"The important implication here is that using a single biofriendly, resorbable device one could image a site of interest, such as a tumor, apply therapy as needed and then monitor the progress of the therapy," says Omenetto.
###
Collaborating with Omenetto and Kaplan from Tufts Department of Biomedical Engineering were Hu Tao, research assistant professor; Jana M. Kainerstorfer, post-doctoral researcher; Sean M. Siebert, a Tufts undergraduate; Eleanor M. Pritchard, former post-doctoral researcher; Angelo Sassaroli, research assistant professor; Bruce J.B. Panilaitis, research assistant professor; Mark A. Brenckle, graduate student; Jason Amsden, former post-doctoral researcher; Jonathan Levitt, post-doctoral researcher, and Professor Sergio Fantini.
At Tufts, Fiorenzo Omenetto also has an appointment in the Department of Physics in the School of Arts and Sciences, and David Kaplan also has appointments in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, the Department of Chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, and the School of Dental Medicine.
The work was supported by the United States Army Research Laboratory, the United States Army Research Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Tissue Engineering Resource Center of the National Institutes of Health under award number P41EB00250 and the National Science Foundation.
Tao, H., Kainerstorfer, J.M., Siebert, S.M., Pritchard, E.M., Sassaroli, A., Panilaitis, B., Brenckle, M.A., Amsden, J., Levitt, J., Fantini, S., Kaplan, D. L., and Omenetto, F.G. (2012),.Implantable Multifunctional Bioresorbable Optics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Doi:10.1073/pnas.1209056109
Tufts University School of Engineering
Located on Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus, the School of Engineering offers a rigorous engineering education in a unique environment that blends the intellectual and technological resources of a world-class research university with the strengths of a top-ranked liberal arts college. Close partnerships with Tufts' excellent undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, coupled with a long tradition of collaboration, provide a strong platform for interdisciplinary education and scholarship. The School of Engineering's mission is to educate engineers committed to the innovative and ethical application of science and technology in addressing the most pressing societal needs, to develop and nurture twenty-first century leadership qualities in its students, faculty, and alumni, and to create and disseminate transformational new knowledge and technologies that further the well-being and sustainability of society in such cross-cutting areas as human health, environmental sustainability, alternative energy, and the human-technology interface.
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ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) ? A new method of growing cardiac tissue is teaching old stem cells new tricks. The discovery, which transforms aged stem cells into cells that function like much younger ones, may one day enable scientists to grow cardiac patches for damaged or diseased hearts from a patient's own stem cells -- no matter what age the patient -- while avoiding the threat of rejection.
Stem cell therapies involving donated bone marrow stem cells run the risk of patient rejection in a portion of the population, argues Milica Radisic, Canada Research Chair in Functional Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto.
One method of avoiding the risk of rejection has been to use cells derived from a patient's own body. But until now, clinical trials of this kind of therapy using elderly patients' own cells have not been a viable option, since aged cells tend not to function as well as cells from young patients.
"If you want to treat these people with their own cells, how do you do this?"
It's a problem that Radisic and her co-researcher, Dr. Ren-Ke Li, think they might have an answer for: by creating the conditions for a 'fountain of youth' reaction within a tissue culture.
Li holds the Canada Research Chair in Cardiac Regeneration and is a Professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, cross-appointed to IBBME. He is also a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute.
Radisic and Li first create a "micro-environment" that allows heart tissue to grow, with stem cells donated from elderly patients at the Toronto General Hospital.
The cell cultures are then infused with a combination of growth factors -- common factors that cause blood vessel growth and cell proliferation -- positioned in such a way within the porous scaffolding that the cells are able to be stimulated by these factors.
Dr. Li and his team then tracked the molecular changes in the tissue patch cells. "We saw certain aging factors turned off," states Li, citing the levels of two molecules in particular, p16 and RGN, which effectively turned back the clock in the cells, returning them to robust and healthy states.
"It's very exciting research," says Radisic, who was named one of the top innovators under 35 by MIT in 2008 and winner of the 2012 Young Engineers Canada award.
Li and Radisic hope to continue their goal to create the most effective environment in which cells from older patients can be given new life. "We can create much better tissues which can then be used to repair defects such as aneurysms," Li says, as well as repairing damage caused by heart attacks.
The study was recently released in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the top journal in the field of cardiovascular medicine.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Toronto, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Kai Kang, Lu Sun, Yun Xiao, Shu-Hong Li, Jun Wu, Jian Guo, Shu-Ling Jiang, Lei Yang, Terrence M. Yau, Richard D. Weisel, Milica Radisic, Ren-Ke Li. Aged Human Cells Rejuvenated by Cytokine Enhancement of Biomaterials for Surgical Ventricular Restoration. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2012; 60 (21): 2237 DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2012.08.985
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 27, 2012) ? The installed price of solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2011 and through the first half of 2012, according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost-tracking report produced by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
The median installed price of residential and commercial PV systems completed in 2011 fell by roughly 11 to 14 percent from the year before, depending on system size, and, in California, prices fell by an additional 3 to 7 percent within the first six months of 2012. These recent installed price reductions are attributable, in large part, to dramatic reductions in PV module prices, which have been falling precipitously since 2008.
The report indicates that non-module costs -- such as installation labor, marketing, overhead, inverters, and the balance of systems -- have also fallen significantly over time. "The drop in non-module costs is especially important," notes report co-author Ryan Wiser of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division, "as these costs can be most readily influenced by local, state, and national policies aimed at accelerating deployment and removing market barriers." According to the report, average non-module costs for residential and commercial systems declined by roughly 30 percent from 1998 to 2011, but have not declined as rapidly as module prices in recent years. As a result, non-module costs now represent a sizable fraction of the installed price of PV systems, and continued deep reduction in the price of PV will require concerted emphasis on lowering the portion of non-module costs associated with so-called "business process" or "soft" costs.
The report indicates that the median installed price of PV systems installed in 2011 was $6.10 per watt (W) for residential and small commercial systems smaller than 10 kilowatts (kW) in size and was $4.90/W for larger commercial systems of 100 kW or more in size. Utility-sector PV systems larger than 2,000 kW in size averaged $3.40/W in 2011. Report co-author Galen Barbose, also of Berkeley Lab, stresses the importance of keeping these numbers in context, noting that "these data provide a reliable benchmark for systems installed in the recent past, but prices have continued to decline over time, and PV systems being sold today are being offered at lower prices."
Based on these data and on installed price data from other major international PV markets, the authors suggest that PV prices in the United States may be driven lower through large-scale deployment programs, but that other factors are also important in achieving installed price reductions.
The market for solar PV systems in the United States has grown rapidly over the past decade, as national, state and local governments offered various incentives to expand the solar market and accelerate cost reductions. This fifth edition in Berkeley Lab's Tracking the Sun reportseries describes historical trends in the installed price of PV in the United States, and examines more than 150,000 residential, commercial, and utility-sector PV systems installed between 1998 and 2011 across 27 states, representing roughly 76 percent of all grid-connected PV capacity installed in the United States. Na?m Darghouth, also with Berkeley Lab, explains that "the study is intended to provide policy makers and industry observers with a reliable and detailed set of historical benchmarks for tracking and understanding past trends in the installed price of PV."
Prices Differ by Region and by Size and Type of System
The study also highlights the significant variability in PV system pricing, some of which is associated with differences in installed prices by region and by system size and installation type. Comparing across U.S. states, for example, the median installed price of PV systems less than 10 kW in size that were completed in 2011 and ranged from $4.90/W to $7.60/W, depending on the state.
It also shows that PV installed prices exhibit significant economies of scale. Among systems installed in 2011, the median price for systems smaller than 2 kW was $7.70/W, while the median price for large commercial systems greater than 1,000 kW in size was $4.50/W. Utility-scale systems installed in 2011 registered even lower prices, with most systems larger than 10,000 kW ranging from $2.80/W to $3.50/W.
The report also finds that the installed price of residential PV systems on new homes has generally been significantly lower than the price of similarly sized systems installed as retrofits to existing homes, that building integrated PV systems have generally been higher priced than rack-mounted systems, and that systems installed on tax-exempt customer sites have generally been priced higher than those installed at residential and for-profit commercial customer sites.
Price Declines for PV System Owners in 2011 Were Offset by Falling Incentives
State agencies and utilities in many regions offer rebates or other forms of cash incentives for residential and commercial PV systems. According to the report, the median pre-tax value of such cash incentives ranged from $0.90/W to $1.20/W for systems installed in 2011, depending on system size. These incentives have declined significantly over time, falling by roughly 80 percent over the past decade, and by 21 percent to 43 percent from just 2010 to 2011. Rather than a direct cash incentive, some states with renewables portfolio standards provide financial incentives for solar PV by creating a market for solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs), and SREC prices have also fallen dramatically in recent years. These declines in cash incentives and SREC prices have, to a significant degree, offset recent installed price reductions, dampening any overall improvement in the customer economics of solar PV.
The report Tracking the Sun V: An Historical Summary of the Installed Price of Photovoltaics in the United States from 1998 to 2011, by Galen Barbose, Na?m Darghouth, and Ryan Wiser, may be downloaded from: http://emp.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/LBNL-5919e-REPORT.pdf.
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Are your teams lacking morale? Are you finding the lack of team cohesion a real problem in achieving those business goals? You could find that the groups you?ve assigned to undertake those business tasks might perform better if you invest in team building exercises.
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How many audio/video home entertainment components do you own? Do you use a separate remote control for each one? Are you the designated controller in your family because no one else can figure out how to start the TV, satellite and DVR? Have you ever been at work when you get a call something like [...]
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea soccer club, may step up as a "white knight" minority shareholder to resolve a four-year power struggle at Norilsk Nickel in a deal that would also name the Arctic miner's largest owner Vladimir Potanin chief executive.
Sources close to the talks said good progress was made over the weekend in agreeing terms of the peace deal. Abramovich, a core shareholder in FTSE 100-listed Evraz, would act as a buffer between Potanin and Oleg Deripaska, who also controls a stake in the world's largest nickel and palladium miner, the sources say.
Potanin and Deripaska have been at loggerheads since the latter's Hong Kong-listed aluminum firm RUSAL bought a one-quarter stake in Norilsk just before the 2008 global crash in a cash-and-stock deal worth around $14 billion.
RUSAL is now losing money and burdened by $10.7 billion in net debts, while Deripaska never won a real say on the Norilsk board and instead was overruled by Potanin, who launched a series of share buybacks with the backing of company management.
Deripaska also refused offers by Norilsk to buy back the stake at what would have been a relatively modest loss, infuriating his partners in RUSAL. One, Viktor Vekselberg, quit earlier this year as RUSAL chairman.
Analysts say that movement in the shareholder deadlock at Norilsk may reflect Kremlin concern over an ugly court battle just as Russia's metals and mining sector is struggling with a nasty cyclical downturn.
Were Abramovich to buy the 7 percent stake on offer - worth about $2 billion - that would introduce a shareholder at Norilsk who has a history of good relations with President Vladimir Putin. Abramovich's spokesman declined to comment.
Under the terms of the deal the parties would also agree to increased dividend payouts over the next three years, meeting a demand long pressed by Deripaska. Norilsk currently pays no less than 20-25 percent of earnings to shareholders; one of the sources said that could rise to 50 percent although a second doubted this was possible.
CHANGES AT THE TOP
Both Norilsk and Interros, Potanin's holding company, said the 51-year-old tycoon may replace Vladimir Strzhalkovsky as CEO at Norilsk, a company he first invested in through the loans-for-shares privatizations auctions he orchestrated in the 1990s.
"This scenario is being considered as part of possible agreement," Interros representative Larisa Zelkova told Reuters on Monday.
Norilsk spokeswoman Alisa Fialko said it was too early to say if and when a decision might be taken.
"Strzhalkovsky knows about this scenario of personnel changes. He understands the main shareholder's desire to become head of the company," she said.
Potanin now owns 28 percent of Norilsk, which has a market value of nearly $28 billion. After the buybacks 17 percent of its equity is now held in treasury and the main shareholders have agreed to cancel 10 percent of that by next April.
Two sources familiar with the shareholder discussions said Abramovich may buy the remainder of the treasury stock, equivalent to a 7 percent stake before the stock cancellation and nearly 7.8 percent afterwards.
The two sides want to bridge their differences before a London arbitration court opens hearings next week into a case dating back to 2010 in which Deripaska accuses Interros of reneging on deal to run Norilsk in the interests of all shareholders - although sources say a full agreement is unlikely before then.
Shares in Norilsk fell by 1 percent to 4,632 roubles, extending their year-to-date decline to 6.6 percent. In Hong Kong, RUSAL's shares gained by 2.7 percent to HK$4.62, narrowing their 2012 losses to 6.5 percent.
(Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Sophie Walker)
Raise a Smarter, Healthier Child America?s fight against childhood obesity starts in your own home
EXERCISE MAKES YOUR CHILD SMARTER
The fitter children are, the better their brains work. That?s hard science from researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who tested elementary-school students.
Physically fit kids had greater P3 amplitude, a measurement of brain activity related to memory and focus, and faster P3 latency, meaning they were able to process information faster. ?Parts of your brain don?t develop until the late teenage years,? says Charles H. Hillman, Ph.D., the study?s lead author. ?These data show that those who are fit are better able to use what they have.?
The number of students taking phys ed fell 30 percent in the past 10 years. Read the Men?s Health special report on The 7 Ways to Reform America?s Physcial Education
Elementary-school students may have the most to gain from physical education. In a review of 44 studies examining the relation-ship between physical activity and cognition in children of varying ages, researchers at Arizona State University found that the youngest kids (grades one through five) improved cognitive development the most, followed by middle-school students.
The California Department of Education found that the fittest students in the state scored best on academic tests. For instance, the average reading score of students who achieved one of six goals on the statewide fitness evaluation was 38; students who achieved all six fitness goals averaged a reading score of 52.
At Arrowhead High School, organized exercise helped Corey Wise organize his schoolwork. ?I started taking as much time with my homework as I did with my workout,? he says. Class became fun, and it showed in his grades. Your child may benefit from planned activity, too.
3 WAYS TO HELP YOUR KIDS EAT BETTER
Promise Academy, a charter school in Harlem, New York, closed its doors to vending machines and food brought in from outside. It serves only healthy food. Until your school does the same, it?s up to you to take control. Use these simple strategies to help your kids eat healthfully.
1. Enroll in a cooking class
And involve the kids. Children who learn about cooking learn about food. ?Cooking classes open your mind to a variety of different ways to prepare healthy food,? says Andrew Benson, head chef at Promise Academy. Benson offers a cooking class for parents and students; the children aren?t the only ones who develop healthy habits. ?Parents become interested in learning how to change their diets and their lives,? he says. Go to cookingschools.com to find a class near you.
2. Make friends with a farmer
?If you go to a farmers? market, they?ll usually give advice on how to prepare the foods,? says Benson. Fresher food is more nutritious food. And the closer a child is to the source of food (visit a farm if you can), the more interested he or she will be in nutrition. That?s crucial ? because even children who consume excess calories have nutrient deficiencies. Canadian researchers found that 87 percent of kids don?t get enough vitamin E, 28 percent lack magnesium, and 45 percent miss out on vitamin D. And a study in Pediatrics found that more than 60 percent of kids are calcium deficient, which, along with a lack of exercise, may have caused a rise in bone fractures.
3. No more soda
Stock up on milk and bottled water (if your tap water doesn?t taste good). Kids get more than 50 percent of their beverages at home. When researchers at Children?s Hospital Boston sent bottled water to families to replace their sugary drinks, kids lost about a pound a month. And a study in the journal Pediatrics found that overweight preschool children are twice as likely to remain overweight if they drink sugar-sweetened beverages. Note that 100 percent juice is okay ? it supplies fiber and key nutrients.
BY THE NUMBERS
29: Percentage of kids who take no physical-education class at all
8: Percentage of schools that meet nationally recommended exercise requirements
45: Percentage of kids who are overweight or obese
BEIJING (AP) ? Pop icon Elton John publicly dedicated his only concert in Beijing to Chinese artist and political critic Ai Weiwei, sending a murmur of shock through an audience accustomed to tight censorship of entertainment.
Minutes into a more than two-hour show Sunday night, John told the audience that the performance was dedicated "to the spirit and talent of Ai Weiwei," according to several audience members. They said the crowd rumbled in recognition that Ai remains a touchy subject for the Chinese government.
An internationally acclaimed sculptor and installation artist, Ai has used his art and his renown to draw attention to social injustice. He was detained for nearly three months last year, and he remains barred from leaving China.
Ai and John met each other briefly on Sunday before the concert. "I super like him," Ai said on his feed on Twitter, which is banned in China but on which he has 180,000 followers.
China-based online media sites reported on John's Beijing show, as they did on a Friday night performance in Shanghai, but they did not report John's remark about Ai.
The Chinese government exercises tight control of live performances, requiring artists to submit detailed lists of songs, casts and crew members before approval is given. Censors further tightened scrutiny after singer Bjork shouted "Tibet, Tibet" at the close of a song titled "Declare Independence" at a Shanghai performance in 2008.
There are millions of different online businesses out there, and if you expect your particular business to be successful, then you need to implement some sound marketing techniques. By reading through this information, you will find valuable information on how to best utilize the Internet for marketing purposes. Keep reading for great Internet marketing information.
Think about methods you want to use to advertise your webpage. Free or cheap methods to promote your business are to make a blog or use social networks to promote your business. There are many ways to get people to come to your site. It just takes some creativity.
Make sure that you maximize the quality of third-party security with transactions. Many different companies offer a variety of secure services. VeriSign is one of the programs that helps to keep financial information private. Security systems can cost money, but they are absolute necessities for doing business online safely.
Internet marketing is both similar to, and different from, other marketing tactics. Be ready for any changes that may come up, like if search engines stop putting focus on title tags. Knowing this, you might need to place more effort in marketing a video to viral audiences.
Every company should have both an interesting slogan and a professional logo, no matter the size of the company. You customers will remember you by how you portray your brand. Customers tend to remember catchy slogans for quite a while. When a customer is ready to buy a product, he might remember your slogan even if he doesn?t remember the name of your business. In the age of the internet, that?s not a big problem.
Sending emails is a great way to stay in touch with your customers, but make sure you send out varied content. A block of links that remain the same with every email your customers receive is easy to start ignoring. Create variety in your emails to gain attention.
Another option would be combining products into a package deal and selling it for a lower price. That way the customer gets more bang for their buck. Advertisements for sales or promotions must be detailed and contain the exact conditions of the offer.
Use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to connect with your audience. You can use these sites to advertise new offers or to share your latest articles. However, make sure to not over-advertise on these websites. Rather, strive to post useful and smart messages with intermittent marketing messages interspersed.
Making your site stand out is a great Internet promotion advantage you can use. Making your site stand out is what drives visitors towards your site, and there are a lot out there so this is a good strategy. You should showcase something you offer that no one else does.
Make a webpage specifically built for public relations. This is where you can include information that online magazines and newspapers can publish. Not only is this simple to do, but it also is an excellent way to promote your business.
Spin the positives when selling your goods. Concentrate on the value your product or service will add to their life. Tell them how it will make their life better. Having a positive attitude, and being confident that your product will work to the customer?s benefit, will encourage more sales.
High-quality graphics of your products can make or break an online sale. Your customers need to be able to visualize the items they are about to buy, and see the detail of your high-quality products. Allow customers to post their own images of your products to show how they use them. If your product warrants use of ?before and after? pictures, they can be an effective selling tool.
If you can you should give your away something branded for free to help spread awareness of your business. For example, if it?s a wallpaper, submit it to sites that offer free wallpapers. Many websites give their customers freebies, downloads, and e-zines that accept links for you to submit your site.
As stated above, Internet marketing helps your business get noticed. Traditional advertising methods just cannot give you the visibility and the worldwide presence that Online marketing can provide. Use the helpful tips here, and find out what works best for you.
The formatting of your website?s text plays an important role in its attractiveness and success. You can emphasize a single word using tags to underline, bold, or italicize it. This can help to distinguish how you want your customer to receive a certain message, which can help with the clarity of what you are trying to say.
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Public release date: 29-Nov-2012
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