Friday, March 23, 2012

3 x SNORING CESSATION MOUTHPIECE ANTI SNORE APNEA ...

by micheal on March 22, 2012

3 x SNORING CESSATION MOUTHPIECE ANTI SNORE APNEA CURE SNORE DEVICE SLEEP AID Other Available Images : >Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 ??*** THE PEOPLE?S FAVORITE *** ?ARE YOU TIRED OF SNORING?ARE YOU TIRED OF WAKING UP YOUR PARTNER IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERY NIGHT?ARE YOU TIRED OF SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY FOR THINGS THAT DO NOT WORK? If you answered YES to all 3 of these questions, then HURRY and purchase this item before it?s too late? ?Not only do you get 1 OR 2 of these AMAZING SNORING DEVICES, but you get 3 when your purchase this item. Perfect for you personal medicine cabinet, take 1 on weekend holiday/business trips with you so that you don?t keep you roommates awake, or just simply have a spare mouthpiece on hand. 3 for the price of 1? You can?t beat this deal!!! Because if you are like me or know someone that?s snores? It can really keep you up at night!??STOP SNORING MOUTHPIECE3 x NEW with CUSTOM MOLDING INSTRUCTIONS When looking for a sleep aid for snoring problems, there are many options, don?t spend a fortune on devices that don?t work. Breathing strips are inexpensive, but in many cases they are equally ineffective. The simplest and most effective solution for sleep snoring is a custom molded anti snoring mouthpiece. These simple devices designed to eliminate snoring and improve sleep can be made custom fit to your bite right in your own home and only take a few moments to prepare. Our anti snoring mouthpiece is a very unique invention and a miracle to those whom, with the help of our anti snore mouthpiece, are able to get a peaceful nights sleep. This anti snoring mouth piece can be affordably purchased and now it is possible for you and everyone else in y r home to sleep at night. The snore mouthpiece is a simple gel sleep mouthpiece that is boiled and then custom fit to your bite right at home. This snoring mouthpiece is unobtrusive and comfortable to wear and works by slightly repositioning your lower jaw while you sleep. Are you ready to start getting a quality nights sleep with your new Anti Snoring Mouthpiece now?If your answer to the above question is yes then why not try our risk free anti snoring mouthpiece now?The best anti snoring mouthpiece on the market today. Snore eliminator snore mouthpiece ensures sound sleep for everyone.The Ultimate Stop Snoring MouthpieceAre you considering purchasing another stop snoring device for more money? Stop! Why not try our risk free 100% guarantee first? The Snore Eliminator stop snoring mouthpiece was developed and designed by Dr. Vatcheon, who has been an Oral Surgeon for 15-years. CALCULATED SHIPPING DUE TO CUSTOMS INTERNATIONAL SHIPMENTS MAY TAKE UP TO 2 TO 3 WEEKS? BUT GENERALLY TAKE 1 WEEK. USPS FIRST CLASS / INTERNATIONAL DON?T DELAY, STOP SNORING TODAY! andale andalesell Payment Options: PayPal Shipping Options: Domestic shipping: Weight based Shipping Charges. Domestic Carriers are: Usps First-Class I will ship to: United States [Weight]: 6 oz. Shipping and Handling: Payment Policy: PayPal: Please make payment within 24 hours of winning this auction. Thank You FELTON INDUSTRIES Vendio Images: More than just a pretty image. 150 FREE professional templates with Vendio Sales Manager. Vendio provides powerful selling automation for sellers of all sizes. FREE Counters used in millions of listings ? Vendio!

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Source: http://fitnesshealthandlife.org/3-x-snoring-cessation-mouthpiece-anti-snore-apnea-cure-snore-device-sleep-aid-2/

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

How To Choose A Safe Skin Lightening Product? ? Beauty, Health ...

Once in a while we all need to remind ourselves that make-up exists to enhance our best features. Even the best liquid foundation shouldn?t be used in mass quantities to hide our blemishes because frankly, that just doesn?t work. Makeup, if applied correctly, can help us diminish the appearance of that ugly pimple, but it can?t make it disappear. Layer upon layer of think goopy foundation only succeeds at making dry skin seem dryer and flakier.

Instead of hiding our skin under a mountain of creatively applied makeup and large sunglasses, the best thing to do is find the root of the problem and work on improving overall skin quality. The best solution for habitual skin problems is prevention. Acne and troubled skin have numerous causes from hormonal changes, unhealthy diet, stress, etc. But, working on improving your overall health from the inside out can result in a noticeable turnaround for your skin. Eating a healthy diet, exercising, and following a daily skin care routine are a few things that can improve your complexion.? And if you?re one of those unlucky women that suffer from the unfortunate trifecta of skin problems, acne, dryness, and discoloration, well, there is no magic solution, but there is help out there.

Zostaw komentarz

Source: http://www.akcesoria-kosmetyczne.pl/skin-care/how-to-choose-a-safe-skin-lightening-product-2/

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Celebrated Tea Rooms of London | Global Travel Guide

[unable to retrieve full-text content]With a view of the gardens, guests prefer to sit on the terrace when the weather permits. The Orangery offers a wide selection of premium teas as well as gourmet faire. From the gorgeous china to the delicious food and drink, ...

Source: http://www.globaltravelguide.co.uk/celebrated-tea-rooms-of-london/

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Kurt J. Werthmuller: What Replacing Pope Shenouda III Entails, And The Difficult Task Of Representing Egypt's Coptic Christians

2012-03-20-StBishoyWashingFeetofChrist.jpg
Sacred art from the Monastery of St. Bishoy, Wadi Natrun, where Pope Shenouda will be laid to rest.

Pope Shenouda III, who presided over Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church since his ascension to the patriarchal throne of St. Mark in 1971, died on 17 March at the age of 88. News and deeply moving images of tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of mourners amassing outside of the Coptic Cathedral in the Cairo district of al-'Abbasiya have since steadily streamed out of Egypt. It is clear that the Coptic Orthodox community is now experiencing a profound sense of loss, mingled with heightened anxiety for their future.

This is all happening, of course, as Egypt continues to undergo a period of distressing socio-political upheaval, with no end to the turmoil in sight. In light of all this, the loss of Pope Shenouda and the appointment of his eventual successor are certain to highlight key issues of the Coptic plight in the coming months, but few of them will be as important to the Copts' long-term prospects as that of their representation in broader Egyptian state and society.

Given his dedicated conservatism and his failing health in recent years, it may be hard for many to imagine that Pope Shenouda was in many ways a "patriarch of the youth." The period of his leadership, in fact, was one of astounding revitalization to the Coptic community. Before he was patriarch, the young man then known as Nazeer Gayed played a crucial role in the "Sunday School Movement" in the 1930s and -40s, which helped to forge a newly reinvigorated sense of identity among upcoming generations of Copts. Under his vision for the Church, monasteries -- an institution that the Copts introduced to the world 1600 years ago -- found themselves overflowing with novices for the first time in centuries, even as hundreds of new churches were planted overseas to represent the Copts' quickly expanding diaspora. He even reached out to the Coptic youth by personally leading a weekly Bible Study and Q&A session at the cathedral in al-'Abbasiya, which remained wildly popular until his declining health prevented him from continuing.

It is also important to note that all of this growth within the Church took place against the backdrop of Egypt's struggle with Islamic extremism, which erupted in the late 1970s and reached its culmination in the mid-1990s. This growth persisted despite Egypt's infamous and deepening political corruption and authoritarian order, which only partly fell in 2011. And it continued to thrive despite the Copts' persistent struggle with discrimination, outbreaks of anti-Christian violence, and growing tensions with an increasingly conservative Muslim majority and an unsympathetic (at times complicit) regime. The worst of this has been most evident in the last several years, and the revolution has so far only exacerbated rather than alleviated these harsh realities.

Pope Shenouda's time in the See of St. Mark was not without its controversies, of course. He banned his Coptic Orthodox followers from going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem as long as it remained occupied by Israel, a decision that raised eyebrows abroad while mostly garnering praise at home. For that pronouncement and other political stances, he incurred the wrath of Anwar Sadat during the latter's spiral into political paranoia and repression, for which the Pope was put under house arrest in 1981 at the Monastery of St. Bishoy in Wadi Natrun (where he is to be laid to rest).

Pope Shenouda also drew criticism for his acquiescence to the Mubarak regime, a charge that only intensified in 2011 when he refused to endorse the uprising that eventually overthrew Hosni Mubarak. He firmly resisted calls for the legitimization of divorce, a singular but divisive issue among some Copts who have argued for a reversal of the Church's stringent tradition. Finally, his same vision for the Church that brought significant renewal also presumed him to collectively represent all of Egypt's Copts, and he often spoke on their behalf despite the considerable diversity of their political perspectives.

In a sense, then, Pope Shenouda came to personify the collective struggles of the Copts -- and so his death has likewise been felt especially deeply by the community as a whole. And yet, with considerable and genuine respect to his memory and legacy, it is exactly the tacit approval of this close identification of confessional leadership and collective identity that must now change as the Copts close this chapter of their history and tradition and forge ahead into largely unknown territory.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is now tasked with choosing its new leadership, and all of Egypt's Christians face an uncertain future in light of the nation's still-suffering state of public security, its rule of law deficit, and the rising authority of Islamists in Egyptian governance. It is clear that the Copts now need to unite more than ever. But it is also imperative that they seek greater rights, and not as a community that clings to an outdated sectarian order, held over from the Ottoman millet system and thrust upon them by Egyptian state and society. Instead, the Copts must demand, with every means at their disposal, a new order based on full and equal citizenship under a revised constitution. Egypt's existing socio-political order already consistently deal with the Copts as a collective entity, permanently conceived as an internal "Other"; it will be impossible for this to change as long as the Copts themselves -- and their leadership -- continue to willingly surrender to this status quo.

The Copts' real hope does not lie in the maintenance of such a collective order that allows one ecclesiastical head to speak for all, regardless of the capabilities of the new patriarch. Rather, an improvement of their lot will only come through their effort as a community comprised of individual Egyptian citizens, unified by their faith but steadfast in their demands to be recognized as full and equal Egyptian citizens, with legal rights, personal liberties, and civic responsibilities identical to those of their Muslim compatriots.

Islamists may yet pull Egypt into a state dominated by the application of a rigid version of sharia, and the Copts will fare far worse under this if they begin such a future resigned to remaining second-class members of a dhimmi collective rather sharing in the national project as Egyptians. It's quite enough that most Islamist members of Egypt's new parliament -- particularly those who do not ascribe to the wasitiya (centrist) movement's more tolerant approach to citizenship -- would already choose that submissive role for them.

May the next patriarch to assume the throne of St. Mark over the Church of Alexandria come to preside not over a group of Copts merely obligated to live in Egypt, but rather over a community of full Egyptian citizens who are also proud to call themselves Copts. And in light of this, may Pope Shenouda's passing serve as a reminder to his followers: "Hold your head up high, you are a Copt!"

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Follow Kurt J. Werthmuller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KWerthmuller

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kurt-j-werthmuller/replace-pope-shenouda-iii-egypt-coptic-christians_b_1367011.html

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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Budgeting ? The Delicate Art Of Balancing Your Budget | 2in1 Cards

Government budgets represent amongst 25% and 50% of he / she Gross Domestic Product (GDP), depending on the country. The folks the European Union (Germany, France) and the Scandinavian countries stand for the apex of the encroachment upon the national resources. Other countries (The uk, to name one) learn better. But even the a lot more developed countries in Se Asia do not remove the 25% hurdle.

The government finances, therefore, is the best economic decision, the key economic event every single (fiscal) year.

Government entities finances its budgeting usually by taxing individuals along with corporations. Ultimately, households pay the bill. Also corporations are of individuals and make their money by advertising products and services to individuals. Increased taxes are likely to be passed on to customers or to workers. There are numerous kinds of taxation, regressive and progressive, direct and indirect, on earnings additionally, on property ? but they most serve to finance the budget.

Another method of financing the budget is by credit either in the capital marketplaces (by selling securities as the government of america does) ? or simply by ?voluntarily? deducting part of the wages (as Israel used to do until a decade ago). Such credit has grave backlashes: the national debt evolves, debt service (repayment schedules of interest on the debts plus the principal of the debt) consumes a growing number of of the national resources and the government crowds individuals and ? more to the point ? businesses out of the credit ratings markets. In other words, the bucks that is lent on the government is not open to finance consumption, purchases and working capital with regard to businesses. The competition around the scarce resource involving capital increases your buck, interest rates. Government credit has disastrous monetary consequences in the long term: lowered consumption, heightened mortgage rates, stagnant investments ? most leading to recession along with negative or lowered growth rates.

Realizing these unfortunate final results, governments the world over are actually converted to the new faith of balanced financial constraints or, at least, lowered and controlled finances deficits.

The two most commonly known examples are the United states of america and the European Union.

One of the things which used to separate political camps in the states ? Democrats versus Republicans ? seemed to be their attitude towards role of federal government in the economy. The Dems believed in an active federal government, whose role it truly is to ameliorate the excesses of the markets. That logically led to less hysteria over the sized budget deficits. The particular Republicans firmly believe in Bad Big Government and in the overriding necessity to constrain it and abolish as many of that functions as politically along with economically feasible. Tiny Government was a pillar of the treaty with the people which led the Republicans to their landslide Congressional glory in 1994.

It is really an absurd that it became a Republican president (Reagan) who was in charge of the biggest increase in the nation?s debt since the United states was established. He / she reduced the disturbance of government with economic life usually by reducing taxes ? minus the commensurate slimming down of federal government itself. The result seemed to be apocalyptic: enormous twin loss (budget and deal), a collapse in the exchange rates of the Buck against all important currencies, recession and also the steepest stock market crash later.

Today, the USA owes 5 billion USD. True, this really is only 60% of the GNP ? although this time statistics will be misleading. The interest expenses on this ?benign? level of debts amount to 15% of the finances, or 250,500,000,000 USD per annum. This is a lot more than any other expenditure object in the budget, with the exception defence. And it is finding worse.

This, even so, belongs to the past. Clinton is really as much a Republican just like any and both parties write about the conviction that the budget must be balanced by the beginning of the centuries. It seems that it is well on its way there. The particular projections of the aim and reliable Congressional Budget Office (CBO) are positive: the budget will be stability shortly, long before it was projected to do so.

Nevertheless it was an American, Benjamin Franklin, who once (1789) stated: ?Only two things are certain in this world ? death along with taxes?. This spectre of a balanced budget already provokes interest group to pressurize the administration to get less tight fisted along with possessed more of the social conscience.

No place was the new ?less deficits? doctrine a lot more apparent than in your Maastricht Treaty and, especially, in its criteria. These determine which of the states of the EU can join the Dinar single currency focus the first wave involving entrants in Late 90s. One of the more important criteria is that the deficit in the government?s budgeting will not go beyond 3.0% of GDP (?three place zero? ? emphasize the Italians who are very concerned with the stability of the foreign exchange which will replace their treasured DM).

As a result of this specific rigid criterion, government authorities have increased taxes (France), imposed one time levies (Italy), engaged in imaginative accounting (again France with many others) as well as unsuccessfully tried to do this (the failed seek to revalue the gold stores in the coffers of the Bundesbank with Germany). Some had been aided by confident economies (France), other individuals by favourable open opinion (Italy), and the like by farsightedness (Germany?s Kohl). Every one of them pay a beloved economic, political along with social price. By restraining the budget debt, they induce recession or fail to inspire budding economic expansions. Lack of employment rates remain stubbornly large, so do interest rates.

This is the price of adhering to a fiscal fad.

Balanced as well as low deficits financial constraints are a good things once the economy is roaring ahead of time. But there are certain stuff that only governments are capable of doing: defending the country, retaining law and buy, disaster relief, ensuring market competition. Among the more important functions associated with a administration is to work anti-cyclically, to encourage business activities in times of recession ? and hold the economic farm pets when they go wild. A government no longer can do this when it is hands are strapped behind its back again by a totally hit-or-miss limitation: no more than 3% finances deficit (why 3? you should 2.65%?). This Maastricht criterion can prove, in the long run, to get lethal to the very idea of a Eu.

What is a budget?

It?s a program. It maps the government?s costs and allocates its helpful a period of one fiscal year. Some fiscal years start along with end in January (Israel), other individuals in October (the united states). But budgets usually relate to fiscal decades because of their dependence on levy revenues. Modern federal government budgets make a apparent separation between recent expenditures and the progress elements. These were mixed in the past and this supported to cloud problems and to disguise gross misuse of money.

But this architectural separation did not change anything basic. Costs are statements, largely of policy. The cost delineates clearly ? and if it won?t do so, it surrenders by way of careful reading along with analysis ? the politics, economic and social priorities and targets of the government that prepared it. Political figures can talk a lot about the importance of this or that ? but it?s only when they put (other people?s) money where their mouth is that an indisputable priority is made. Money talks (loudly) and the budget claims the true face of the government which designed it.

In this sense, a budget is also a overseeing tool. By researching financial projections, finances allocated to specific purposes in the budget ? on the actual use made from the funds and the extent that they were expended, it becomes apparent whether the government ?has maintained its word?, ?changed its mind?, as well as ?reneged on its promises?. An affordable is a promise, this is a contract between the decided government and the nation, it is approved simply by parliament and has the rank of a law. An affordable can be altered just through a vote with parliament. It is a document involving unparalleled importance, next only to the metabolism.

Still, budgets (moreso as compared to constitutions) are like living creatures:

As circumstances change, new priorities along with emergencies alter the allocation of resources. The cost is based on economic forecasts and predictions, not every one of them successful are available true.

This is why additional or supplementary financial constraints are introduced by government authorities during the fiscal year. These are updated variants of the original finances. They reflect your changed reality much better than the outdated first. They help to redefine national priorities, reallocate resources, modify national investing.

These budgets commonly include tax increases, new economic as well as social programs, as well as additional specific costs. In some countries, your legislator must show do you want to money be found to invest in the newfound enthusiasm embedded in the new spending items.

Budgets are influenced by exogenic factors, certainly not controlled by the federal government. Force Majeure cases, much like the floods in the Czech Republic (3 zillion USD) and in Poland (2 billion USD). Geopolitical processes like wars along with peace agreements at the center East (the 1979 peace cost Israel practically 4 billion USD to implement). The burdensome, depressingly uniform demands of the IMF from poor places: austerity, fiscal tightening, a monetary squeeze, privatization, deregulation and so on.

Several countries are of their own accord subject to externalities: the European countries agreed to modify their budget in order to comply with the Maastricht criteria. The French and The german language Premiers appointed special committees to analyze the budget. The reports submitted by these types of committees forced the government authorities to cut spending, increase taxes and make tighter the fiscal discipline (never mind that the This particular language committee failed to consider the renaissance of the This particular language economy and considerably exaggerated the projected budget deficit). In every these cases an action of rebalancing the budget is called for.

The USA has a distinct budgetary procedure. The Federal budget is composed of 13 separate bills. They are submitted to Congress with regard to approval by the operations. When the President along with Congress disagree, a number of the bills are not authorized and certain federal government operations are turn off. This happened in the 1996 fiscal year. In fact, the budget with regard to fiscal year The early nineties has been approved just after the 1997 finances was.

In the case of a real deadlock, stop gap financial constraints are passed by Our lawmakers to allow the government to remain to function until any budget is positively voted on.

Budget are usually acts of people. They represent tricky data implausibly coupled with goals, projections, goals along with hopes. They are susceptible to mistakes, greed, cronyism, alternate motives. The existence of the mechanism to modify budgets is, thus, of the essence and to be greeted. A budgeting amendment is often ceased on by the opposition as proof of the government?s fallibility and failure. Playing with a changing planet ? they who do not adapt through change are usually doomed. Governments in which amend their financial constraints midway merely declare that they are made of people and are doing their nation a service.

Source: http://2in1cards.co.uk/2012/03/19/budgeting-the-delicate-art-of-balancing-your-budget/

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Monday, March 19, 2012

UC research tests new tool to guide reintroduction of the American chestnut

UC research tests new tool to guide reintroduction of the American chestnut [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 19-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: M.B. Reilly
reillymb@ucmail.uc.edu
513-556-1824
University of Cincinnati

The death of the American Chestnut due to an Asian bark fungus accidentally introduced to the United States had profound environmental and economic consequences since the tree was highly valued for its strong, workable lumber and a variety of wildlife from deer to birds to bears relied upon the chestnut for food.

Ongoing efforts to reintroduce the American Chestnut are labor intensive and expensive, in part because they rely on genetic cross breeding to produce a tree that is genetically speaking primarily an American Chestnut but endowed with the Chinese Chestnut blight-resistance genes. For instance, one recent blight-resistant strain ready for reintroduction is calculated to be 94 percent American Chestnut and six percent Chinese Chestnut.

Since production of genetically cross-bred American Chestnuts for reintroduction is so laborious, University of Cincinnati graduate and undergraduate biology students recently tested a new software tool called NEWGARDEN in order to see how it might guide preserve managers in creating the most-favorable conditions for reintroduction plantings of American Chestnuts.

The results of that testing, "Founder Placement and Gene Dispersal Affect Population Growth and Genetic Diversity in Restoration Planting of American Chestnut," will be presented by UC biology doctoral student Yamini Kashimshetty at the March 23-25 Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference, a conference specifically for undergraduate and graduate student research that will draw representatives from the region.

Several years ago, UC faculty members Steven Rogstad of biological sciences and and Stephan Pelikan of mathematical sciences developed the NEWGARDEN computer program in order to not only track but to predict long-term outcomes for newly founded plant populations in terms of population size and genetic diversity.

Predicting best planting practices for American chestnuts

Using the NEWGARDEN software, UC students Kashimshetty and Melanie Simkins input a variety of founder planting scenarios in order to determine which would best promote a reintroduction population of American Chestnuts to thrive for the next 101 years.

They began with a theoretical restoration preserve of about 25 square kilometers square (or about 9.7 square miles). Using the software, they varied the original placement of 169 founder American Chestnuts to determine which pattern would theoretically lead to the largest population gains and the greatest genetic diversity among that population for the next 101 years. (An original replanting of 169 trees was selected for this study because previously published studies determined that figure to be the minimum number required to retain a high level of long-term genetic diversity while keeping reintroduction expenses at a minimum.)

Said Kashimshetty, "Due to the expense of producing the hybridized American Chestnuts, we wanted to test and determine potential best practices for reintroducing them. The tests that we are able to do virtually, such as varying different life history characteristics - including pollen and offspring-dispersal distances or varying the placement geometry of founders, cannot be easily done in the real world since large areas, large numbers of trees and replicate experiments lasting 100 years or more would be needed."

So, she added, "To perform multiple real-world variations on a tree like the American Chestnut would be extremely expensive and labor-intensive."

In testing varying reintroduction scenarios with the NEWGARDEN software, the UC team simulated natural population development and found

  • To ensure the greatest population growth rate and genetic diversity retention among the original founders and offspring trees, an original planting of a stand of 169 founders should be 1,500 meters (about 1,640 yards) into the preserve's borders. Said Kashimshetty, "If you plant near the edge of a preserve, you risk slower population growth and greater loss of genetic variation due to offspring dispersal out of the preserve."
  • By simply planting the founder trees 1,500 meters into the preserve and planting the original founder trees in a grid 16 feet apart from one another, the result in 101 years' time should be about 7,000 trees.
  • At least 9,000 resulting trees would be possible in 101 years' time by moderate dispersal (manually moving) of offspring seeds or seedlings to greater distances from the founders than would occur naturally.
  • If the original stand of trees is planted at the edge of the preserve, it's estimated that the original stand of 169 trees would result in approximately 2,000 resulting trees in 101 years' time. Thus, by planting the trees further into a preserve at 1,500 meters, with proper spacing, it's estimated that 247 percent more trees will result in 101 years' time.
  • Even planting the founder trees only 500 meters (1,640 feet) into the preserve vs. planting founders on the preserve's edge would increase the population size by 148 percent in 101 years' time.
  • Further, by planting the original founder trees just 500 meters into the preserve, 97 percent of their genetic diversity is preserved. Thus, if the goal is only to preserve genetic diversity without regard for achieving maximum population size, it's sufficient to plant the original stand 500 meters (1,640 feet) into the preserve.

Through such comparative computer modeling, the goal is to provide improved guidelines for the spacing and geometric patterning of founding trees in restoration plantings of American Chestnut, leading to a more successful return of this threatened but important native to the eastern forests of North America.

###


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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.


UC research tests new tool to guide reintroduction of the American chestnut [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 19-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: M.B. Reilly
reillymb@ucmail.uc.edu
513-556-1824
University of Cincinnati

The death of the American Chestnut due to an Asian bark fungus accidentally introduced to the United States had profound environmental and economic consequences since the tree was highly valued for its strong, workable lumber and a variety of wildlife from deer to birds to bears relied upon the chestnut for food.

Ongoing efforts to reintroduce the American Chestnut are labor intensive and expensive, in part because they rely on genetic cross breeding to produce a tree that is genetically speaking primarily an American Chestnut but endowed with the Chinese Chestnut blight-resistance genes. For instance, one recent blight-resistant strain ready for reintroduction is calculated to be 94 percent American Chestnut and six percent Chinese Chestnut.

Since production of genetically cross-bred American Chestnuts for reintroduction is so laborious, University of Cincinnati graduate and undergraduate biology students recently tested a new software tool called NEWGARDEN in order to see how it might guide preserve managers in creating the most-favorable conditions for reintroduction plantings of American Chestnuts.

The results of that testing, "Founder Placement and Gene Dispersal Affect Population Growth and Genetic Diversity in Restoration Planting of American Chestnut," will be presented by UC biology doctoral student Yamini Kashimshetty at the March 23-25 Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference, a conference specifically for undergraduate and graduate student research that will draw representatives from the region.

Several years ago, UC faculty members Steven Rogstad of biological sciences and and Stephan Pelikan of mathematical sciences developed the NEWGARDEN computer program in order to not only track but to predict long-term outcomes for newly founded plant populations in terms of population size and genetic diversity.

Predicting best planting practices for American chestnuts

Using the NEWGARDEN software, UC students Kashimshetty and Melanie Simkins input a variety of founder planting scenarios in order to determine which would best promote a reintroduction population of American Chestnuts to thrive for the next 101 years.

They began with a theoretical restoration preserve of about 25 square kilometers square (or about 9.7 square miles). Using the software, they varied the original placement of 169 founder American Chestnuts to determine which pattern would theoretically lead to the largest population gains and the greatest genetic diversity among that population for the next 101 years. (An original replanting of 169 trees was selected for this study because previously published studies determined that figure to be the minimum number required to retain a high level of long-term genetic diversity while keeping reintroduction expenses at a minimum.)

Said Kashimshetty, "Due to the expense of producing the hybridized American Chestnuts, we wanted to test and determine potential best practices for reintroducing them. The tests that we are able to do virtually, such as varying different life history characteristics - including pollen and offspring-dispersal distances or varying the placement geometry of founders, cannot be easily done in the real world since large areas, large numbers of trees and replicate experiments lasting 100 years or more would be needed."

So, she added, "To perform multiple real-world variations on a tree like the American Chestnut would be extremely expensive and labor-intensive."

In testing varying reintroduction scenarios with the NEWGARDEN software, the UC team simulated natural population development and found

  • To ensure the greatest population growth rate and genetic diversity retention among the original founders and offspring trees, an original planting of a stand of 169 founders should be 1,500 meters (about 1,640 yards) into the preserve's borders. Said Kashimshetty, "If you plant near the edge of a preserve, you risk slower population growth and greater loss of genetic variation due to offspring dispersal out of the preserve."
  • By simply planting the founder trees 1,500 meters into the preserve and planting the original founder trees in a grid 16 feet apart from one another, the result in 101 years' time should be about 7,000 trees.
  • At least 9,000 resulting trees would be possible in 101 years' time by moderate dispersal (manually moving) of offspring seeds or seedlings to greater distances from the founders than would occur naturally.
  • If the original stand of trees is planted at the edge of the preserve, it's estimated that the original stand of 169 trees would result in approximately 2,000 resulting trees in 101 years' time. Thus, by planting the trees further into a preserve at 1,500 meters, with proper spacing, it's estimated that 247 percent more trees will result in 101 years' time.
  • Even planting the founder trees only 500 meters (1,640 feet) into the preserve vs. planting founders on the preserve's edge would increase the population size by 148 percent in 101 years' time.
  • Further, by planting the original founder trees just 500 meters into the preserve, 97 percent of their genetic diversity is preserved. Thus, if the goal is only to preserve genetic diversity without regard for achieving maximum population size, it's sufficient to plant the original stand 500 meters (1,640 feet) into the preserve.

Through such comparative computer modeling, the goal is to provide improved guidelines for the spacing and geometric patterning of founding trees in restoration plantings of American Chestnut, leading to a more successful return of this threatened but important native to the eastern forests of North America.

###


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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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/uoc-urt_1031912.php

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The Customer is Not Always Right According to CustomerSupport ...


Sydney, Australia (PRWEB) March 15, 2012

One of the most overused business policies is the customer is always right, and as common courtesy is starting to devalue in society, businesses are often faced with customers who tend to behave abusively because they are paying. The truth of the matter is, there should be no monetary equivalent for bad behaviour. CustomerSupport.org recently released research about the revised version of the archaic business policy; instead of the customer is always right, businesses should focus more on the right customer service.

According to Jeremy Pappas of CustomerSupport.org, When customers get the right service they want, they usually commend you and your business. This entails a good working relationship and endorsements to that particular customers family and friends. However, remember to give emphasis on the word, deserve. When you give what customers truly deserve, you must remember to be as professional as you can.

There are many ways of interpreting what Pappas stated but the bottom line is a business must deliver the service that it has committed to, customers other demands that are not included in the scope of the service can be catered or not catered to upon the discretion of the service provider. In one way or another, a business establishment is likely to encounter an uncouth customer who completely gets a kick out of taking advantage of courteous and polite employees and they should be dealt with properly and professionally. Oftentimes, a lot of businesses, because of a great need to generate more sales, compromise their own integrity in catering to the demands of their customers and this often works detrimentally for the business.

Customer support is a provision that is important in customer service. Making sure that customers needs are given great priority will not only make them loyal customers, but they will endorse a business services to other people as well. Pappas also advises, Remember that the customer is the companys number one priority. It doesnt matter if your company is selling foam rollers or DIY instruction manuals, the customer is always important. If they are happy and satisfied, they will never hesitate to purchase whatever it is that you are selling over and over again.

CustomerSupport.org regularly provides articles about everything from policies to technological features that can be incorporated to any kind of business. For businesses that are interested in gaining a better understanding of how the right kind of customer service should be carried out, there are numerous articles about customer support, phone support and software support at the site.

Source: http://29classifieds.info/29/2012/03/the-customer-is-not-always-right-according-to-customersupport-org-research/

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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Need for speed

Need for speed [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 18-Mar-2012
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Contact: Sonia Furtado Neves
sonia.furtado@embl.de
European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Molecular ticket determines RNA's destination and speed inside egg cell

Like any law-abiding train passenger, a molecule called oskar RNA carries a stamped ticket detailing its destination and form of transport, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found. They show that for this molecule, moving in the right direction isn't enough: speed is of the essence. Their study, published online today in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, also provides clues as to how a single molecule could receive tickets for different destinations, depending on what type of cell it is in.

For a fruit fly embryo to develop properly, oskar RNA produced by the mother has to enter the egg cell, or oocyte, as it matures, and be taken to one of its ends the posterior pole. Researchers in Anne Ephrussi's group at EMBL have now found that this movement is more complicated than it seemed. When oskar is processed for transport by a mechanism called splicing, two different tags SOLE and EJC are attached to it, next to each other, at a specific spot. Ephrussi and colleagues found that both tags have to be in place for oskar to reach the right destination. Together, they seem to form a ticket that marks oskar for transport to the posterior pole, differentiating it from the many other RNAs that enter the oocyte bound for different destinations.

When they genetically altered the SOLE tag, the scientists found that oskar didn't go to the oocyte's posterior pole, as it should. But surprisingly, it did still move, and seemingly in the right direction. The problem, the researchers realised, was that oskar is racing towards a moving target. As the oocyte grows, it becomes longer, in effect taking the posterior pole further and further away as oskar is carried towards it. With a defective SOLE tag, oskar seemed unable to move fast enough to overcome the oocyte's growth. So somehow this 'ticket' affects the speed of transport, too.

Ephrussi and colleagues are now investigating how SOLE and EJC interact with each other, and how they might influence the cellular machinery that transports oskar. The scientists would also like to explore an interesting possibility raised by their current findings. They discovered that the SOLE tag is only formed if the RNA molecule is spliced. Since some RNAs can be spliced at different spots along their length, this means the same RNA could potentially be issued with tickets for different destinations for instance, in different cell types depending on which parts of it are spliced.

###


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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.


Need for speed [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 18-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Sonia Furtado Neves
sonia.furtado@embl.de
European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Molecular ticket determines RNA's destination and speed inside egg cell

Like any law-abiding train passenger, a molecule called oskar RNA carries a stamped ticket detailing its destination and form of transport, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found. They show that for this molecule, moving in the right direction isn't enough: speed is of the essence. Their study, published online today in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, also provides clues as to how a single molecule could receive tickets for different destinations, depending on what type of cell it is in.

For a fruit fly embryo to develop properly, oskar RNA produced by the mother has to enter the egg cell, or oocyte, as it matures, and be taken to one of its ends the posterior pole. Researchers in Anne Ephrussi's group at EMBL have now found that this movement is more complicated than it seemed. When oskar is processed for transport by a mechanism called splicing, two different tags SOLE and EJC are attached to it, next to each other, at a specific spot. Ephrussi and colleagues found that both tags have to be in place for oskar to reach the right destination. Together, they seem to form a ticket that marks oskar for transport to the posterior pole, differentiating it from the many other RNAs that enter the oocyte bound for different destinations.

When they genetically altered the SOLE tag, the scientists found that oskar didn't go to the oocyte's posterior pole, as it should. But surprisingly, it did still move, and seemingly in the right direction. The problem, the researchers realised, was that oskar is racing towards a moving target. As the oocyte grows, it becomes longer, in effect taking the posterior pole further and further away as oskar is carried towards it. With a defective SOLE tag, oskar seemed unable to move fast enough to overcome the oocyte's growth. So somehow this 'ticket' affects the speed of transport, too.

Ephrussi and colleagues are now investigating how SOLE and EJC interact with each other, and how they might influence the cellular machinery that transports oskar. The scientists would also like to explore an interesting possibility raised by their current findings. They discovered that the SOLE tag is only formed if the RNA molecule is spliced. Since some RNAs can be spliced at different spots along their length, this means the same RNA could potentially be issued with tickets for different destinations for instance, in different cell types depending on which parts of it are spliced.

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share 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.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/embl-nfs031412.php

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Purchasing ? and MAINTAINING ? Flood Insurance is a Great ...

From FEMA:

DENVER ? With one of the mildest winters ever nearly in the books, South Dakotans are looking to the renewal of spring. Unfortunately, that spring renewal often comes hand-in-hand with flooding. This year?s lack of snowfall is no reason to let your guard up, as heavy spring rains led to last year?s major floods on the Missouri and James Rivers.

Read this article on FEMA.gov

Source: http://thebci-usa.com/wordpress/2012/03/16/purchasing-and-maintaining-flood-insurance-is-a-great-investment-for-south-dakotans/

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Saturday, March 17, 2012

Good Reasons to Sell Affiliate Products on the Web | Easy ...

Being your own personal boss is truly conceivable on the net. Equipped with persistence and also confidence in yourself in carrying on to go forward with your affiliate marketing work, perhaps you may delight in generating a full-time source of income from anywhere which includes your living room. Being your own boss via the internet brings increased autonomy. The same as virtually anything at all, it all calls for some amount of time for every aspect to appear into fruition, as affiliate marketing online is certainly worth patiently abiding and habitually marketing.

The benefit of joining affiliate programs is you have no production bills. Numerous affiliate marketing programs offer participants the ability to enroll without spending a dime, and promote the merchant?s merchandise. Legitimate affiliate products do not enforce an upfront expense just in order to become an online affiliate. The only dollars you will need to commit for earning money from home on the web is cash to have your domain name, online business web hosting service package, as well as perhaps fund your CMS product ?content management system?, should you decide to not utilize a cost-free version of self-hosted WordPress on your dedicated server. In addition to possibly additional card processing expenses, that?s more or less the only pieces you?ll end up shelling out for, in running your internet business.

As soon as you begin to generate income by way of affiliate programs that?s enough to cover your bills and much more, internet affiliate marketing means that you can experience the freedom to do as you please every day, and not having to stress about heading to a typical career and doing work to secure a take-home paycheck. Affiliate programs give affiliates peace of mind in earning profits and realizing a new section of existence, which isn?t being needed to wake up each morning, choose what to put on and turn dashing outside to some ?real job.?

The World Wide Web is an altogether different ballgame with regard to frame of mind, in terms of finding out another way of lifestyle through affiliate internet marketing. With affiliate marketing online, you could make lots of money quietly from the convenience of your own home, while carrying out other stuff, including cooking, visiting the health club, and whatever additionally imaginative and beneficial.

One other big plus with affiliate internet marketing is you don?t need to care about paying personnel. Utilizing internet affiliate marketing, you possess the chance to perhaps earn just as much money as a conventional enterprise does, and not having to employ people. Picture obtaining thousands of dollars month after month funneled directly into your bank account from the net, through generating large online affiliate commissions without having workers helping you make the income. That?s possible with the help of web marketing. When you begin creating a bundle of money from affiliate marketing, all the cash goes to your checking or savings account, except for placing a percentage in reserve, for paying your income taxes at the ending of the year. That part you?re responsible for, so make sure you set aside a sensible amount of cash to afford the IRS.

Affiliate programs and internet marketing is a reasonable path to choose, if you wish to be your own boss using the web. Not every person has the ability to have a routine day job, nor relishes waking up every day and running to benefit some other person. In spite of anything you might have suffered in your lifetime, there is a way to beat the working day workplace domain, and earn legitimate earnings concurrently, by means of internet affiliate marketing and running your own business online. Become inspired now to become an affiliate marketer online and establish a positive improvement in the way you present yourself in the neighborhood.

Discover the simple, lucrative solution to the complicated affiliate internet marketing world, and go to Erick Manard?s site and get your FREE video report to find the best online marketing strategies for you.

Tags: affiliate, affiliate internet, affiliate internet marketing, affiliate marketing, business, earning, internet, internet marketing, marketing, marketing online, money, online, Pay, programs, system, web

Source: http://easywordpressmoney.com/internet-marketing/good-reasons-to-sell-affiliate-products-on-the-web/

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Photo exhibit documents life inside North Korea

NEW YORK (AP) ? It's a simple scene that repeats itself around the world.

A man gently lifts a small child by the arms as they reach the top of the escalator inside a modern department store.

In this particular photograph, the man and the child are in Pyongyang, capital of the communist country where life's daily activities are largely a mystery to the rest of the world.

A photo exhibit that opened Thursday at a gallery in New York includes images such as these, as well as magnificent landscapes, drab cityscapes and visits by foreign dignitaries.

"Daily life is really what I try to focus on when I'm there. ... It's unscripted, it's candid," said AP Chief Asia Photographer David Guttenfelder, who took some of the photographs in the show, and who has made who has made many reporting trips to North Korea since 2010.

"For people to see their own life in other people's lives, I think it has a lot of power to break down barriers."

"Windows on North Korea: Photographs From the DPRK," is a joint exhibition by The Associated Press and the state-run Korean Central News Agency, and features a mix of archival and contemporary images.

The show was timed to open before the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation's founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15, and comes two months after the AP expanded its operations in Pyongyang to include writers and photojournalists. The AP became the first international news organization to have a full-time presence in the secretive communist country when it opened a video bureau in 2006.

The photographs "give us rare views of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a nation of great interest to the world, though little known," said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of the AP.

North Korea and the United States have never had formal diplomatic relations, and the two nations have experienced tensions over the years, particularly over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. North Korea has tested two atomic devices in the past six years.

Tensions had recently eased somewhat. Late last month, the United States and North Korea announced an agreement that calls for Pyongyang to freeze its nuclear activities in exchange for food aid. But a surprise announcement by the North Koreans on Friday that they plan to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket could jeopardize that agreement.

The exhibit's organizers said they hoped the show would help foster better understanding between the two countries.

"My expectation is that this will be the first step in some peaceful reconciliation, and in a few years there will be trade, cultural exchange and tourists from each country coming to (the) other," said Donald Rubin, who co-founded The 8th Floor gallery hosting the exhibit.

Images on display included a 1953 KCNA photograph showing residents helping to rebuild Pyongyang's central district after the Korean War, AP photos documenting visits by such prominent foreigners as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright, as well as everyday scenes ranging from sunbathers at the beach to shoppers inside a modern department store.

"It is our hope that this exhibition would give exhibition-goers visual understanding of the people, customs, culture and history of the DPRK, thereby helping to deepen mutual understanding and improve the bilateral relations," Kim Chang Gwang, KCNA's senior vice president, said in an address at the show's opening.

"In this exhibit, we are offered two perspectives of the DPRK ? as viewed by her native daughters and sons from KCNA and by AP journalists visiting to chronicle news and daily life there. We can appreciate the different styles and techniques and points of view," Carroll said. "These photographs also show us that different people can find common ground."

The show also includes images taken by KCNA journalists who participated in a joint workshop in October led by AP instructors. It runs from March 15 to April 13 at The 8th Floor gallery, which was established to promote cultural and philanthropic initiatives.

The AP, an independent news cooperative founded in New York and owned by its U.S. newspaper membership, has operations in more than 100 countries and employs nearly 2,500 journalists across the world in 300 locations.

___

http://the8thfloor.org/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/photo-exhibit-documents-life-inside-north-korea-164218071.html

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Why "More Bars in More Places" Means Nothing [At&t]

Years ago we heard AT&T's pitch: "more bars in more places". Their campaign was to let everyone know that they had the best signal around. Sure, that may have mattered then, but the definition of signal is even variable. Just a few years ago, Apple and AT&T changed how the iPhone displayed the signal bars to appear as though people had better service. Signal is just one of the indicators that the carriers give us to understand a device's connection to the network. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/TOyK4HulIoA/why-more-bars-in-more-places-means-nothing-anymore

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Survivor One World Episode 5 Recap

We begin our Survivor One World recap of Episode 5 on the morning of Day 13 with the ladies of the Salani Tribe. They dodged the bullet yesterday, after losing the Immunity Challenge. But thanks to a meltdown at the men?s camp, the Manono Tribe shocked everybody by volunteering to go to Tribal Council instead. King Colton exercised his power and disposed of Billy. The women think the men are either crazy, stupid, or both, for pulling such a bone-headed move! Jeff Probst shakes things up on Episode 5 of Survivor One World. Image Credit: PNP / Wenn.com. Time for the Reward Challenge! But first, Jeff Probst shakes things up by telling everybody to drop their buffs! Yes, its time for a roster change! The old switch-a-roo is acted out with eggs that are loaded with dye. Those with blue dye are Salani, Orange are Manono. Jeff orders all to crack their eggs. The new Salani Tribe consists of Mike, Troyzan, Jay, Chelsea, Kit, Kim and Sabrina. The new Manono Tribe has all the losers in Colton, Tarzan, Leif, Jonas, Alicia, Christina and Monica. The Reward Challenge is a race to fill a leaky bucket with water, then haul it [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/61jiLIPeyrw/

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Small Business Marketing Tips from #SXSWi 2012 | Business 2 ...

sxsw2012Didn?t get to attend the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin this year? Have no fear. There?s a ton of notes available on Twitter. To make it easier than sifting through all of the information to find useful bits of information, I?ve outlined some helpful tweets from just a couple of the panels that I attended.

Feel free to use the associated hashtags to discover more information about each panel or leave a comment for this post to get a conversation started here.

Why Small is the New Big and Big is the New Small

Twitter Hashtag: #eggcellent

What was this panel about? Size doesn?t matter anymore. The over-riding lesson we are learning worldwide is that a business that gets ahead of the curve is a smart one, not necessarily a big one. The rapid development and adoption of information communication technologies (ICT) over the last ten years is driving this change. As consequence, businesses are leveraging new web, mobile and social technologies to interact with customers and prospects in a whole new way. A role reversal between SMB and Large Enterprise is taking place: SMB is becoming more ubiquitous and quantitative while Enterprise is becoming more personalized and qualitative. This session explores the causes, corrections, and outcomes of the changing dynamics within the marketplace that now allow SMB and Large Enterprise companies to compete for the same customers.

Takeaways:

  • Social is transforming IT, making it more accessible for small businesses to go to market & compete w/ the big boys.
  • Everything is becoming more local. Even big business needs to find ways to be unique & visible in local markets.
  • Get hyper-personal; make your customers your board members and sales force. They can be the greatest influencers that attract more business for you.
  • When customers are cheap to acquire don?t forget to work on loyalty and retaining that customer
  • Identify your differentiators and make those things drive your business. It?s not just about price.
  • What you do with data regardless of how big (or small) of a company you are is what will differentiate you

FutureShop?Virtual QR Stores, NFC Receipts & More

Twitter Hashtag: #futureshop

What was this panel about? The mobile shopping revolution isn?t theoretical, it?s here and it?s all around us. Innovations abound such as Tesco?s virtual QR grocery store in a Korean subway station, Levi?s digital fitting rooms, Nestl??s instant deals for UPC scans of ice cream, and NFC payments that obliterate consumers? need for a physical wallet. Providers of these and other game changing consumer experiences are mashing up new capabilities to create magical experiences and frenzied user adoption.

Takeaways:

  • Sears found (during a marketing campaign in a major city) that more people are willing to shop on mobile device via unique URL but not scan a QR code to shop. Reasons? People may not have access to scanner app at the time; they don?t have instruction as to where they?re going once they scan; they?re embarrassed to take a picture/scan something in public.
  • Very low response rate on QR in billboards, difficult to scan & consumers are embarrassed to scan billboards. Postcards offer the privacy some may want before scanning codes.
  • Make the mobile experience quick & seamless; it should be as easy as making a decision in the store
  • Many POS (point-of-sale) systems can?t manage coupons on mobile devices. That legacy system needs to change.
  • Sears is making an effort to talk to shoppers 1 to 1 via channels that they (shoppers) prefer ? SMS, Twitter, etc.
  • Two types of retailers: those that wait to adapt to new tech, and those that lead the charge to innovate
  • Retailers/brands must consider what shoppers are willing to do behaviorally & how to make the shopping experience easier for consumers.
  • Whether businesses are ready for it or not, consumers are interacting with brands via mobile devices. Accept it and adapt.

Author: Cynthia Fedor???? Cynthia Fedor on the Web

Cynthia brings a diverse range of experiences to her role as Marketing Team Lead & Sr. Copywriter to QuantumDigital, an Austin-based integrated direct marketing technology provider. With a background in fine art and strong knowledge of both marketing and communication principles, Cynthia delivers the brand?s story? View?full?profile

Source: http://www.business2community.com/marketing/small-business-marketing-tips-from-sxswi-2012-0147057

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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Report: Billions in federal small-business contracts go to large firms ...

Here are just a few of the companies that were considered a small business in the past year: Apple, Chevron, Verizon, Bank of America and Disney.?? At least, that?s what one advocacy group found when it perused the Federal Procurement Data Systems for government contracts for the past year.

Each year, the government attempts to award at least 23 percent of all federal contracts to small businesses. But new research from the American Small Business League (ASBL) shows that 72 large companies received $16.4 billion in federal small-business contracts, which the group attributes to a combination of policy loopholes, human error and mis-categorization.

?It?s really hard for a small company to compete with a company that has 5,000 employees,? said Brian Reeder, communications director for the ASBL. ?When bigger companies are actually receiving the contracts, there?s nothing left for small businesses.?

The Small Business Administration cautions that it has not yet released its official data on contracting for 2011 and therefore can?t speak to the accuracy of ASBL?s findings. SBA will publish its official 2011 Small Business Procurement Scorecard this summer

?Each federal agency is responsible for ensuring the quality of its own contracting data, but SBA conducts an additional analysis to help agencies identify any potential data anomalies,? said John Shoraka, the SBA?s Associate Administrator for Government Contracting and Business Development in an e-mail statement. ?As part of its ongoing data quality efforts, SBA is continuing to work with federal agency procurement staff to provide tools to facilitate review of data, implement improvements to procurement systems and conduct training to improve accuracy.?

Holes in the system

The ASBL report, released Thursday morning, found that of the top 100 companies receiving federal small business contracts, 72 were large companies that exceeded the SBA?s small-business size standards, which vary depending on the sector.

It?s difficult to identify just one reason why the contracts are awarded as they are, but experts say there are countless small leakages in the government procurement process that can cause large businesses, either purposefully or indirectly, to occasionally win out over small ones.

Ray Bjorklund, chief knowledge officer with the government-contractor software company Deltek, said it can be hard for the SBA to pick the ?right? size for a company to be considered a small business under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, the government?s business classification system.

?When SBA is looking at one class of establishment, such as a corn farmer, there are a lot of small-business corn growers, but also large corporate growers,? Bjorklund said. ?It?s not an easy thing to maintain size standards in a way that keeps up with growth in the economy and changing relationships between sectors.?

Beyond that, when agencies begin feeling the pressure to meet their 23 percent goal, Bjorklund said they sometimes choose NAICS codes that have larger-sized caps if they want a large company to fit into a small-business contract.

?If the agency is anxious to meet its socioeconomic goals, they say, ?I can make this a small-business set aside if I can justify it this way,?? he said. ?All of this is legal, but they should have been more judicious in their acquisition strategy.?

Not close enough for government work

Reeder said human error is another problem in how contracts are coded. For example, Apple was likely never registered as a small business, but Reeder speculates an agency simply needed something only Apple could provide ? iPads, for example ? and then neglected to change the code from ?small? to ?not small? before the transaction was completed. That contract would ultimately be counted toward an agency?s small-business goal.

?There are a lot of those examples, and they really add up,? he said.

The errors may stem from a larger problem in the contracting world ? the thin ranks of the acquisition workforce and the paucity of the available funds to train them.

?The acquisition workforce is not as big as it should be, and they?re not as qualified, because years ago, their funding was slashed,? Bjorklund said. ?These people have inboxes stacked very high, and they want to do the very best possible job, but sometimes mistakes get made.?

The SBA drew a similar conclusion in a report it issued on the same topic last October, saying, ?While some contractors may misrepresent or erroneously calculate their size, most of the incorrect reporting results from errors made by government contracting personnel.?

Small, then big, but still small

There is also a loophole that allows small businesses that are bought by large companies to continue to count as ?small? for the purposes of contracting for years after they?re purchased. For example, the report says that CapRock Government Solutions, which ASBL asserts received more than $200 million in small business contracts last year, is a subsidiary of Harris Corporation, a multi-billion dollar company.

?We?re not arguing the companies should lose those contracts, but it seems silly to count them as small when they?re not small,? Reeder said.

Many of these contracts were awarded to small businesses that are actually subsidiaries of large companies, Reeder said, and they, therefore, don?t face the same odds that independent small companies do.

Bjorklund said he believes there are not quite as many large companies receiving small-business contracts as the ASBL has found. Still, he said, ?the problem still exists, there?s no denying that.?

Last year, the ASBL found that there were 60 large companies included among the top 100 federal small business contractors, so they say the problem has ?at best, stayed the same, if not gotten worse.?

Reeder called for better enforcement of contracting standards by the SBA, but Bjorklund explained that the SBA is largely ?hands-off,? and that the ultimate responsibility falls on the agency issuing the contract.

In the October report, the SBA?s Office of the Inspector General said it had made ?mixed progress? on the issue of small-business contracts going to large businesses. The agency has developed a program to ensure that contracting personnel review contractor sizes, but it has made ?limited progress? in developing regulations to correct the misapplication of industry codes.

So how big of a problem is this for small contractors? Medium, according to Bjorklund. Contractors of every size are losing business as the Department of Defense and other agencies cut back. Small firms don?t have quite the same lobbying clout that larger ones do, he explained, so the impacts for them might be greater ? especially if they aren?t getting all the contracts they should be. Then again, at least the government is doing something for small firms.

?At least there are small-business goals that the government is trying to meet,? he said. ?That makes it a little better than it would be in the commercial marketplace ? where everyone is fending for themselves.?

?by Olga Khazan, The Washington Post, Published: February 22, 2012 and updated: Thursday, February 23, 8:00 AM at http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/report-billions-in-federal-small-business-contracts-go-to-large-firms/2012/02/22/gIQA0EV4TR_story.html.

Source: http://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/2012/03/report-billions-in-federal-small-business-contracts-go-to-large-firms/

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