IMO STATE UNIVERSITY 3-MONTH CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
In line with the 21st Century global business and marketplace expectations, Imo State University invites applications for the IMSU THREE (3) MONTHS CERTIFICATE PROGRAMME IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP. At the end of the program, graduands would have had solid knowledge base and experience in Entrepreneurship, Idea Generation/Critical Thinking, Vision Management, Strategic Business Planning, Operations Management, Business English, Personal / Corporate Branding, Business Plan Writing, Marketing, Legal/Regulatory/Tax Matters in Business, ICT in Business, Basic Record Keeping and Bank Matters. Application forms are now on sale at the Imo State University Micro-finance Bank located at the OCS building of the Imo State University campus, Owerri. The application form costs N5,000 Only. The program will start on the 26th day of Augustl 2013 for the Weekdays? stream (Lectures hold 4pm-6pm on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays) and 31st August 2013 for the weekend stream (Lectures hold 10am-4pm on Saturdays). Graduation day will be on the 30th day of November 2013. Purchasing of application form has commenced and class size is limited.
In spite of appearances ? from the US National Security Agency searching American phone records for patterns to Google counting keywords in e-mails to decide which ads to display ? the algorithm may not conquer all.
This is the conclusion that science reporter Tom Whipple comes around to in his article ?Slaves to the Algorithm? in the magazine Intelligent Life, a sister publication of The Economist. An algorithm is how so-called big data is crunched into something meaningful. ?If p, then q? is an algorithm, but in the age of fast computers, the ?p? can include billions of data points.
Mr. Whipple explores the work of a company, Epagogix, that forecasts the earning power of proposed movies for Hollywood studios, based on thousands of factors punched into its software. It seems to work. And has uncovered some fun facts. One is that so-called bankable movie stars are almost nonexistent. Only three actors, Epagogix has found, actually bring a positive return on investment ? Will Smith, Brad Pitt, and Johnny Depp.
But human judgment has hardly left the picture. The head of Epagogix notes that his program assumes that everything about the movie is done well ? that the dialogue is credible and the actors good (stars or not). And even so, his algorithms can?t discern if the movie is good, only if, done well, a lot of people are likely to pay to see it.
Whipple discusses another facet of algorithms. They are good at finding patterns, sometimes surprising ones, in big numbers. They are not so good at predicting the behavior of individuals. Dating sites, for example, have yet to show any scientific evidence that they can predict who will hit it off with whom.
RECOMMENDED: Briefing Five things to understand about Turkey's protests
LOST RECIPE FOR ROMAN CONCRETE, CRACKED
Some technology just isn?t what it used to be. The Portland cement that we use to make concrete these days doesn?t have a fraction of the lasting power of the aggregate the Romans used a couple millenniums ago. According to a report by Bernhard Warner in Bloomberg Businessweek, research engineers studying 12 ancient Roman-built harbors found that the breakwaters made of Roman concrete have stood the pounding waves for 2,000 years and are still intact. Modern concrete has a working life under water of a mere 50 years. The older, stronger stuff had an added advantage: Its manufacture was relatively clean. Creating Portland cement releases a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
NEEDED: A TURKISH MANDELA
One of the central dangers in Turkey today is of a slide into two sharply polarized camps ? the government and its conservative, religious, largely rural backers on one side and the more affluent, secular, and modernizing protesters on the other. They have come to be called ?black Turks? and ?white Turks.?
Daron Acemoglu, a Turkish-born economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been writing about the current troubles in his country of origin on his Why Nations Fail blog. He notes that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently grouped Turks into ?black? and ?white,? putting himself among the ?black Turks.?
How do societies break out of cycles of polarization? Mr. Acemoglu consults history and finds several routes, but the most attractive is when a leader musters the vision and courage to make peace across the fault lines and show goodwill to the other side.
?So bottom line: we badly need a Turkish Mandela,? he says.
WHAT THEY REALLY MEAN BY ?CONSERVATIVE?
Meanwhile, Americans may not be quite as polarized as they think they are. A series of three new studies find that young adults who call themselves liberal Democrats are overall not quite as liberal on the issues as they think they are. But young people from the rest of the political spectrum tend to bill themselves as more conservative than they are on the issues. The biggest disparity is among those who regard themselves as most conservative. Not so much, it turns out. When asked their stands on a dozen major issues from welfare to gay rights, they didn?t toe as conservative a line as they thought they did, according to the studies, which were reported first in an academic journal, and brought to us by Tom Jacobs in Pacific Standard magazine. Clearly, conservatism is the more popular brand, even when it?s not an obvious fit.
THE BENEFITS OF MILITARY ?LAND POWER?
With US forces finally checking out of Afghanistan and American attention pivoting to East Asia, it?s time for some soul-searching: What?s the Army for?
Maj. Robert M. Chamberlain, writing in the Armed Forces Journal, sees future peace and prosperity in currently unfashionable land power. Terrorists who hole up in the world?s backwaters can best be pursued by special forces teams and armed drones. The Navy can protect the world?s sea lanes and global commerce. Air power can strike awesomely anywhere. But land power ? the job of the Army and Marines ? is inherently less threatening, he argues. ?Land power is the only avenue by which America can enhance regional security and stability, deter Chinese militarism and encourage Chinese commitment to the global status quo.?
RECOMMENDED: Briefing Five things to understand about Turkey's protests
Research has shown that TV-watching and social media usage isn't mutually exclusive. Consumers appear to love using social media?while?they watch TV. Many discuss what they're watching, and these conversations continue long after air-time, with TV-linked chatter?accounting for a significant percentage of overall social media activity.
TV industry players and TV-focused marketers realized they could piggyback on this new consumer habit. The idea was not to compete with social media, but to use it so that televised shows, events, and ad campaigns won?more?audience and audience participation.
Social TV is how these ideas are being made tangible.
In a new report?from?BI?Intelligence,?we define what social TV is, analyze?the most important social TV trends, examine the audience for social TV, detail how social TV is forcing broadcasters and advertisers to rethink their strategies, and look at how data vendors are slicing and dicing all that TV-linked social chatter.?
Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>
Here's an overview of the rise of social TV:
There's a lot at stake:?$350 billion was spent on TV ads globally in 2012. If social TV can help make that advertising more effective, or help social media skim some of those dollars, the opportunity is there for social TV to become a major business in its own right.
Social TV is already here: It's already an established habit with audiences around the world, with majorities of social media users saying they routinely comment about TV shows or events.?activity has grown hand-in-hand with the mobile explosion. Smartphones and tablets have made it much more convenient for people to comment on TV, even as they watch it.?Forty percent or more of U.S. mobile audiences browsed social media on their tablets or smartphones while watching TV. For smartphone users, social media is a more popular companion activity during TV-watching than shopping.
It can be used in many valuable ways:?There are variety of applications for social TV, including support for TV ad sales, optimizing TV ad buys, making ad buys more efficient, as a complement to audience measurement, and eventually, audience forecasting and real-time optimization. Social TV data can be like having a thousands-strong focus group at your fingertips.?Applied well, social TV can create a positive feedback loop for generating ultra-sticky TV programming and multi-screen ad campaigns.?
All the major social media platforms are moving into the space, but Twitter is in the lead:?Twitter, Facebook and Google+ have all been used for social TV-flavored strategies. Of the three, Twitter has taken the lead, in part because so much of its data is open and public, making it easier for marketers to target TV fans.?Twitter's?newest ad product, TV ad targeting, is a clever integration of tweets, hashtags, TV advertising, and digital video.?Twitter?is pitching it to advertisers?as a way to continue telling the brand stories they tell on TV commercials, but to do so in TV audience's twitter feeds ? online and on mobile.
In full,?the?report:?
To access BI Intelligence's full reports on The Rise Of Social TV, sign up for a free trial subscription here.
Why is pulmonary hypertension at high altitude so common and dangerous?Public release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, June 26, 2013Everyone who climbs to high altitude will develop pulmonary hypertension, a temporary constriction of blood vessels that results in increasing strain on the right heart. It is a normal adaptive mechanism but if exaggerated can have serious consequences, resulting in life-threatening disorders and remodeling of the pulmonary circulation. Five mini-Review articles that comprise a Special Topic section in High Altitude Medicine & Biology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers provide an up-to-date overview of the clinical management and biological processes that underlie this fascinating disorder. The articles are available free on the High Altitude Medicine & Biology website.
In the article "Hypoxic Pulmonary Vasoconstriction," Erik Swenson, University of Washington, Seattle, provides a broad overview of pulmonary hypertension and describes what advantages and disadvantages its development may offer in normal human physiology and disease and at high altitude.
Urs Scherrer and colleagues from University Hospital (Bern, Switzerland), Universidad de Tarapac (Arica, Chile), and University Hospital of Lausanne (Switzerland) review studies in the literature aimed at understanding the mechanisms underlying pulmonary hypertension and identifying potential targets for drug therapy. These studies have focused on people with either acute or chronic exposure to high altitude, and on the potential role of epigenetic mechanisms that may lead to remodeling of the lung vasculature during fetal development or childhood. The authors describe potential new directions for drug development in the article "Mechanisms and Drug Therapy of Pulmonary Hypertension at High Altitude."
"An increased pulmonary artery pressure always occurs when the oxygen level in the lungs is reduced as occurs at high altitude," says John B. West, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of High Altitude Medicine & Biology and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. "Although the effects may not be easily discernible, pulmonary hypertension can be a factor in high altitude pulmonary edema and other diseases of high altitude."
###
About the Journal
High Altitude Medicine & Biology, the Official Journal of the International Society for Mountain Medicine, is published quarterly online with Open Access options. It is the only peer-reviewed journal dedicated exclusively to the latest advances in high altitude life sciences. The Journal presents findings on the effects of chronic hypoxia on lung and heart disease, pulmonary and cerebral edema, hypertension, dehydration, infertility, appetite and weight loss, and other diseases. Complete tables of content and sample issue may be viewed on the High Altitude Medicine & Biology website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery, and Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's over 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
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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.
Why is pulmonary hypertension at high altitude so common and dangerous?Public release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
New Rochelle, NY, June 26, 2013Everyone who climbs to high altitude will develop pulmonary hypertension, a temporary constriction of blood vessels that results in increasing strain on the right heart. It is a normal adaptive mechanism but if exaggerated can have serious consequences, resulting in life-threatening disorders and remodeling of the pulmonary circulation. Five mini-Review articles that comprise a Special Topic section in High Altitude Medicine & Biology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers provide an up-to-date overview of the clinical management and biological processes that underlie this fascinating disorder. The articles are available free on the High Altitude Medicine & Biology website.
In the article "Hypoxic Pulmonary Vasoconstriction," Erik Swenson, University of Washington, Seattle, provides a broad overview of pulmonary hypertension and describes what advantages and disadvantages its development may offer in normal human physiology and disease and at high altitude.
Urs Scherrer and colleagues from University Hospital (Bern, Switzerland), Universidad de Tarapac (Arica, Chile), and University Hospital of Lausanne (Switzerland) review studies in the literature aimed at understanding the mechanisms underlying pulmonary hypertension and identifying potential targets for drug therapy. These studies have focused on people with either acute or chronic exposure to high altitude, and on the potential role of epigenetic mechanisms that may lead to remodeling of the lung vasculature during fetal development or childhood. The authors describe potential new directions for drug development in the article "Mechanisms and Drug Therapy of Pulmonary Hypertension at High Altitude."
"An increased pulmonary artery pressure always occurs when the oxygen level in the lungs is reduced as occurs at high altitude," says John B. West, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of High Altitude Medicine & Biology and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. "Although the effects may not be easily discernible, pulmonary hypertension can be a factor in high altitude pulmonary edema and other diseases of high altitude."
###
About the Journal
High Altitude Medicine & Biology, the Official Journal of the International Society for Mountain Medicine, is published quarterly online with Open Access options. It is the only peer-reviewed journal dedicated exclusively to the latest advances in high altitude life sciences. The Journal presents findings on the effects of chronic hypoxia on lung and heart disease, pulmonary and cerebral edema, hypertension, dehydration, infertility, appetite and weight loss, and other diseases. Complete tables of content and sample issue may be viewed on the High Altitude Medicine & Biology website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery, and Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, and Pulmonology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's over 70 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
[ | 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.
If I wanted to pay for marketing that would cost me money
but thats not all it would cost
I would also be trading Money for Time and effort!!
And thats where I have found real value insome of the projects I am involved in right now because I have been trained to know what to do and where to take the necessary action required.If not only me but my team spend one maybe two hours a day we can very quickly build momentum where we are spending a minimum amount of time and effort and getting a huge result very quickly as opposed to off line Marketing where the result can take longer .
I am going to use this topic as my new Blog post
So if you want to know more check out my Blog or give me an email
University Hospitals Eye Institute to offer 'first bionic eye' retinal chip for blindPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Stamatis george.stamatis@uhhospitals.org 216-844-3667 University Hospitals Case Medical Center
1 of a select number of clinical centers in 12 major US markets to offer this breakthrough technology
CLEVELAND -- University Hospitals (UH) Eye Institute will be one of the first medical centers in the United States to offer the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System ("Argus II").
The Argus II is the first and only "bionic eye" to be approved in countries throughout the world, including the U.S. It is used to treat patients with late stage retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Argus II was developed by Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., located near Los Angeles.
In preparation for the launch of Argus II later this year, implanting centers, including UH, will soon begin to accept consultations for patients with RP. UH is one of a select number of medical centers in 12 major markets in the nation, and the only one in Cleveland and the state of Ohio, chosen by Second Sight to offer the Argus II, which received FDA approval earlier this year.
Argus II works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera, housed in the patient's glasses, into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina's remaining cells resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. Patients then learn to interpret these visual patterns thereby regaining some visual function.
"This is a remarkable breakthrough," said Suber S. Huang, MD, MBA, Director, UH Eye Institute's Center for Retina and Macular Disease, who also served as the Independent Medical Safety Monitor for clinical trials of the system and gave the summary closing to the FDA Ophthalmic devices panel.
"The system offers a profound benefit for people who are blind from RP and who currently have no therapy available to them. Argus II allows patients to reclaim their independence and improve their lives."
RP is a rare inherited, degenerative eye disease that often results in profound vision loss to the level of bare light perception or no light perception. It affects nearly 100,000 Americans. Noted Cleveland businessman and professional sports owner Gordon Gund is blind from this disease.
"We are thrilled that several of the nation's top hospitals will be the first to offer Argus II to patients in the U.S.," said Brian Mech, Vice President of Business Development, Second Sight. "After an intensive and difficult selection process, these sites were chosen for their cutting-edge approach to medicine and unparalleled commitment to patient care. We are confident that RP patients seeking treatment at these centers will benefit greatly from the best-in-class services these sites provide."
Argus II had more than 20 years of work in the field, three clinical trials, more than $100 million in public investment by the National Eye Institute, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, and an additional $100 million in private investment.
"Second Sight conducted a highly competitive selection process and noted the UH Eye Institute's Center for Retina and Macular Disease as 'exemplary' and our collaboration with the Cleveland Sight Center, under the leadership of Dr. Steven Friedman, as a model program," said Dr. Huang, who also is the Philip F. and Elizabeth G. Searle-Suber Huang, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Vice-Chair, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at UH and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Dr. Huang notes that the Argus II program is the latest in a list of remarkable recent achievements in vision research for the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, including expansion of its Retina Diseases Image and Cornea Image analysis reading centers which work with eye clinicians and researchers from around the world, award of the $12.4 million Cornea Preservation Time Study, ongoing excellence of numerous clinical research programs, and recognition of being the 5th best National Institutes of Health-funded vision research program in the country (funding to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine).
###
Patients wishing more information should use the following contact information:
RP, an inherited retinal degenerative disease that often results in nearly complete blindness, affects roughly 100,000 Americans and has been designated by the World Health Organization as an orphan disease. In 2009, the Argus II, which is intended to help the worst affected RP patients, received a Humanitarian Use Designation (HUD), making it a candidate for an HDE approval which is intended to expedite the market introduction of technologies intended to treat smaller, underserved patient populations.
About University Hospitals
University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics and spine, radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. University Hospitals Case Medical Center is the 2012 recipient of the American Hospital Association McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for its leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety.
For more information, go to http://www.uhhospitals.org
About the Argus II System
The Argus II System works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera housed in the patient's glasses into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina's remaining cells, resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. The patient then learns to interpret these visual patterns, thereby regaining some visual function.
About Second Sight
Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., located near Los Angeles, California, was founded in 1998 to create a retinal prosthesis to provide sight to patients blinded from outer retinal degenerations such as RP. Through dedication and innovation, Second Sight's mission is to develop, manufacture and market implantable visual prosthetics to enable blind individuals to achieve greater independence. US Headquarters are in Sylmar, CA, and European Headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland. For more information, visit http://www.2-sight.com.
[ | 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.
University Hospitals Eye Institute to offer 'first bionic eye' retinal chip for blindPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: George Stamatis george.stamatis@uhhospitals.org 216-844-3667 University Hospitals Case Medical Center
1 of a select number of clinical centers in 12 major US markets to offer this breakthrough technology
CLEVELAND -- University Hospitals (UH) Eye Institute will be one of the first medical centers in the United States to offer the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System ("Argus II").
The Argus II is the first and only "bionic eye" to be approved in countries throughout the world, including the U.S. It is used to treat patients with late stage retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Argus II was developed by Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., located near Los Angeles.
In preparation for the launch of Argus II later this year, implanting centers, including UH, will soon begin to accept consultations for patients with RP. UH is one of a select number of medical centers in 12 major markets in the nation, and the only one in Cleveland and the state of Ohio, chosen by Second Sight to offer the Argus II, which received FDA approval earlier this year.
Argus II works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera, housed in the patient's glasses, into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina's remaining cells resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. Patients then learn to interpret these visual patterns thereby regaining some visual function.
"This is a remarkable breakthrough," said Suber S. Huang, MD, MBA, Director, UH Eye Institute's Center for Retina and Macular Disease, who also served as the Independent Medical Safety Monitor for clinical trials of the system and gave the summary closing to the FDA Ophthalmic devices panel.
"The system offers a profound benefit for people who are blind from RP and who currently have no therapy available to them. Argus II allows patients to reclaim their independence and improve their lives."
RP is a rare inherited, degenerative eye disease that often results in profound vision loss to the level of bare light perception or no light perception. It affects nearly 100,000 Americans. Noted Cleveland businessman and professional sports owner Gordon Gund is blind from this disease.
"We are thrilled that several of the nation's top hospitals will be the first to offer Argus II to patients in the U.S.," said Brian Mech, Vice President of Business Development, Second Sight. "After an intensive and difficult selection process, these sites were chosen for their cutting-edge approach to medicine and unparalleled commitment to patient care. We are confident that RP patients seeking treatment at these centers will benefit greatly from the best-in-class services these sites provide."
Argus II had more than 20 years of work in the field, three clinical trials, more than $100 million in public investment by the National Eye Institute, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, and an additional $100 million in private investment.
"Second Sight conducted a highly competitive selection process and noted the UH Eye Institute's Center for Retina and Macular Disease as 'exemplary' and our collaboration with the Cleveland Sight Center, under the leadership of Dr. Steven Friedman, as a model program," said Dr. Huang, who also is the Philip F. and Elizabeth G. Searle-Suber Huang, M.D., Professor of Ophthalmology and Vice-Chair, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at UH and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Dr. Huang notes that the Argus II program is the latest in a list of remarkable recent achievements in vision research for the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, including expansion of its Retina Diseases Image and Cornea Image analysis reading centers which work with eye clinicians and researchers from around the world, award of the $12.4 million Cornea Preservation Time Study, ongoing excellence of numerous clinical research programs, and recognition of being the 5th best National Institutes of Health-funded vision research program in the country (funding to Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine).
###
Patients wishing more information should use the following contact information:
RP, an inherited retinal degenerative disease that often results in nearly complete blindness, affects roughly 100,000 Americans and has been designated by the World Health Organization as an orphan disease. In 2009, the Argus II, which is intended to help the worst affected RP patients, received a Humanitarian Use Designation (HUD), making it a candidate for an HDE approval which is intended to expedite the market introduction of technologies intended to treat smaller, underserved patient populations.
About University Hospitals
University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, University Hospitals Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics and spine, radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. University Hospitals Case Medical Center is the 2012 recipient of the American Hospital Association McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for its leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety.
For more information, go to http://www.uhhospitals.org
About the Argus II System
The Argus II System works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera housed in the patient's glasses into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina's remaining cells, resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. The patient then learns to interpret these visual patterns, thereby regaining some visual function.
About Second Sight
Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., located near Los Angeles, California, was founded in 1998 to create a retinal prosthesis to provide sight to patients blinded from outer retinal degenerations such as RP. Through dedication and innovation, Second Sight's mission is to develop, manufacture and market implantable visual prosthetics to enable blind individuals to achieve greater independence. US Headquarters are in Sylmar, CA, and European Headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland. For more information, visit http://www.2-sight.com.
[ | 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.
Online marketing is one of the most useful tools to ensure that your business is reaching as many people as possible. This article will provide you with valuable insight for using Website marketing to build sales and visibility. By following these suggestions you will have an increased chance for marketing success.
Always keep a track of what your competition is doing and see if you can boost your own sales from using, or modifying, some of their tactics. If they are succeeding, you need to analyze what they are doing.
Web marketing can seem difficult. But don?t get discouraged and quit. You might just be doing one or two things wrong that you could easily change. The most important thing to remember is to have everything organized and well researched before launching your website. This can require a lot of effort. Always stay focused, and remember the work will pay off later.
TIP! Ponder what strategies you will use to promote your site. A good way to advertise your page is to give something away, tell people about it in blogs, or put ads out at businesses.
Provide something really unique on your website. This will most likely get you a ton of traffic. The customer will look at other things you have to offer, this will make your site legitimate and give you a higher rank.
You need to make your site stand out from the competition. The web is inundated with business, so you need to become innovative in order to set yourself apart from the pack. One way to begin distinguishing your website from others is to emphasize a service you offer that no one else does.
Advertise special deals on your check-out page. You can add discounted prices for grouped items. Clearing out old or overstocked inventory and marketing them at a steep discount or a freebie can help boost sales and get those product off your hands.
TIP! Marketing is all about finding a need and filling that need. When you start your business, be aware of the problems you are solving.
Always have a signature for your emails, even if the email is only personal. This is like a business card, only printed on pixels instead of on paper. Giving the recipient a glimpse of your business may result in a new customer and another sale.
It can be challenging to choose which direction to lead your business in and design the accompanying website. Make a list of interests and continue to narrow the list down until you have made a decision. Before creating a website, find a niche that suits your business and personality. A clearly defined goal eases your ability to properly market your website.
It is important to use social media in your Internet marketing plans. A Facebook page where people can leave feedback and comments is a good place to start. Also, make sure that you establish a Twitter name to facilitate communication.
TIP! Take time to learn all the basics of website creation. A tremendous source of information is available online where you can find excellent tutorials on learning HTML, CSS and everything else that goes into designing web pages.
When you can, avoid spam. People can tell the difference between comments that have been mass generated and ones that you?ve thoughtfully written yourself. If you do not personally connect with your customers, people will not trust you and your online business could fail.
Make sure that you stay on top of all of the newest Internet developments. Keep pace with all the rapid changes and improvements on the Internet so you can always be ready to get your services placed in front of as many eyes as possible.
Affiliate marketing can give your company more visibility. Online marketing helps fill the gaps in exposure that conventional advertising cannot reach. Learn from these tips and incorporate them into your marketing strategy.
TIP! Make your website unique when using Internet marketing. There are endless sites that are in direct competition with yours, so if you want to attract your share of visitors, you need to offer something unique.
In this Tuesday, June 25, 2013 photo, Paulo Cavalcante, 49, right, Adela, his wife of 16 years, left, their 15-year-old daughter Maria and 10-year-old son Antonio, pose for a photo at their home in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Iraja, Brazil. "We're among the fortunate ones and we're suffering," said the 49-year-old, a public servant with Rio's City Hall. "We've been completely abandoned by our government." (AP Photo/Nicolas Tanner)
In this Tuesday, June 25, 2013 photo, Paulo Cavalcante, 49, right, Adela, his wife of 16 years, left, their 15-year-old daughter Maria and 10-year-old son Antonio, pose for a photo at their home in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Iraja, Brazil. "We're among the fortunate ones and we're suffering," said the 49-year-old, a public servant with Rio's City Hall. "We've been completely abandoned by our government." (AP Photo/Nicolas Tanner)
In this Tuesday, June 25, 2013 photo, Adela Cavalcante talks to her children, Maria,15, left, and Antonio, 10, as they do their homework in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Iraja, Brazil. There are months when the generous family income can't be stretched to cover their basic expenses, which include not only the ever-rising cost of food, transport and electricity, but also expensive private alternatives to Brazil's poor public schools and health services. (AP Photo/Nicolas Tanner)
Commuters are reflected in a subway car window in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Iraja, Brazil, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The Cavalcantes, residents of Iraja, say they must elbow their way onto packed public transit every morning and drill the children on how to react in case of a carjacking or armed robbery because, Paulo Cavalcante figures, "it's only a matter of time before the violence that's all around us comes knocking on our door.? (AP Photo/Nicolas Tanner)
A woman walks past a pile of garbage in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Iraja, Brazil, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The distant suburb is far from the glitz and glamour of Rio's showcase beachfront neighborhoods, where festering piles of uncollected trash dot the sidewalks and the staccato of gunfire from a nearby "favela" slum is so familiar the children can identify the kind of weapon it comes from. (AP Photo/Nicolas Tanner)
A child sits on a concrete slab serving as an entry into a home in the Rio de Janeiro suburb of Iraja, Brazil, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Iraja is far from the glitz and glamour of Rio's showcase beachfront neighborhoods, where in this this distant suburb festering piles of uncollected trash dot the sidewalks and the staccato of gunfire from a nearby "favela" slum is so familiar the children can identify the kind of weapon it comes from. (AP Photo/Nicolas Tanner)
IRAJA, Brazil (AP) ? On paper, the Cavalcantes are a Brazilian success story, a solidly middle class Rio de Janeiro family with a car, a four-bedroom, four-bath house and a full schedule of extra-curriculars for the kids.
But like millions of others who have taken to the streets over the past weeks to protest woeful government services and rampant corruption here, the Cavalcantes say they're struggling to keep their heads above water.
There are months when the generous family income can't be stretched to cover their basic expenses, which include not only the ever-rising cost of food, transport and electricity, but also expensive private alternatives to Brazil's poor public schools and health services.
"We're among the fortunate ones and we're suffering," said 49-year-old Paulo Cavalcante, a public servant with Rio's City Hall. "We've been completely abandoned by our government."
The family lives far from the glitz and glamour of Rio's showcase beachfront neighborhoods in the distant suburb of Iraja, where festering piles of uncollected trash dot the uneven sidewalks and the staccato of gunfire from nearby "favela" slums is so familiar the children can identify the weapons.
Here, Paulo and Adela, his wife of 16 years, their 15-year-old daughter Maria and 10-year-old son Antonio live all but cloistered in their cozy but spartan 340 square meter (3,700 square foot) house. With the specter of stray bullets ever-present, the children aren't allowed to ride bikes in the neighborhood, and because there's little policing, the family avoids leaving home after dark.
They can't drink the tap water, must elbow their way onto packed public transit every morning and drill the children on how to react in case of a carjacking or armed robbery because, Paulo figures, "it's only a matter of time before the violence that's all around us comes knocking on our door."
The protests began several weeks ago over a 10-cent hike in metro and subway fares in the economic capital, Sao Paulo, and mushroomed into a massive, nationwide movement unlike anything seen in Brazil since mass demonstrations helped lead to the 1992 impeachment of then-President Fernando Collor. Though protesters continue to hit the streets in record numbers to push for a broad swath of demands, their core complaint boils down to the disconnect between the high taxes people pay and the poor services they receive in return.
"We're killing ourselves to provide our kids with what the government doesn't," said Paulo, who campaigned for President Dilma Rousseff but now says he's disillusioned with the governing leftist Workers' Party.
The past decade of galloping economic growth, fueled largely by China's appetite for Brazilian natural resources, was kind to the Cavalcantes. They are among the estimated 40 million Brazilians lifted out of poverty during the boom ? and now watching many of their hard-earned gains wither away under the weight of inept government and a cripplingly high cost of living.
The family moved out of Vigario Geral, the slum where Paulo and Adela were raised and which gained nationwide notoriety after a 1993 massacre. They moved into a cramped apartment in Iraja, and then traded up for their current home, a two-story cinder-block house protected by a towering wrought-iron fence.
A flat-screen television presides over their tidy living room kitted out with two overstuffed leather couches. Upstairs, the three bedrooms are similarly neat, and only the rec room, where impish Antonio wiles away afternoons playing with toys and videogames, is anything less than spotless. A rooftop terrace is covered with the saplings that Paulo grows from seed and looks out over three nearby "favelas," all as yet untouched by the government's pacification program, which has seen police take over dozens of slums ahead of next year's World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics.
The Cavalcantes bought the house five years ago, just before Rio's real estate market went into overdrive, sending property prices here soaring by around 170 percent. The monthly payment on their 20-year mortgage is just $670.
But despite their low housing cost, Paulo's enviable public servant salary barely sustains the family's modest lifestyle. (Adela, a former elementary school teacher, quit when Maria was born because it would have cost more than her salary to put the baby in day care.)
First, there's the $2,000 in income taxes and social security contributions that are deducted each month from Paulo's paycheck ? among the highest tax burdens in the world.
Then comes the $670 they pay for health insurance, so they can steer clear of Brazil's beleaguered public hospitals and clinics - known for their chronic shortage of doctors, medicines, beds and even sheets. The insurance allows the Cavalcantes to see private doctors who routinely charge around $250 per consultation. But their plan excludes dental care, anesthesia and a host of other procedures. They shell out another $530 a month in hospital insurance for Paulo's aging parents.
"I wish we could rely on the public health system, but people literally die in the emergency room waiting to see a doctor," said Adela. "So obviously that's not a realistic option."
The family budgets around $700 a month for food, a category that's been hit hard by Brazil's 6.67 percent inflation.
"Each month the bill gets bigger and our cart gets smaller," said Adela, who shops at a wholesale produce market and clips coupons. She's stopped buying tomatoes, which more than doubled in price over the past year, provoking an online consumer backlash that was a harbinger for this month's Facebook-organized protests.
Then there's the $220 the Cavalcantes spend on transportation each month ? not including gas because the traffic in greater Rio has gotten so bad they rarely take their Volkswagen hatchback out of the garage. For Paulo, who takes the subway to his job in downtown Rio, public transit is the lesser of two evils, despite a rush-hour crush so tight commuters sometimes faint. The hot buses are no better, he says.
"I'd rather spend 20 minutes packed in the subway like a sardine than nearly two hours each way in the inferno that is gridlock traffic," Paulo said. It does give him pause to walk past the drug dealers standing sentry at a slum on his way to the subway, the police stand across the street always empty.
There's also the $1,550 in monthly fees for the kids' private school and twice-weekly English lessons - the single bill the Cavalcante parents say they "pay with a smile."
"When you're born poor in Brazil, you know the only way out is to rob or to get an education," said Paulo, who overcame his "worthless" elementary and secondary education to earn two bachelor's degrees and is currently in law school part time.
"I'm such a shy person that I knew I couldn't rob," he said with a straight face, "so I've really applied myself to getting an education."
Tack on the phone and electricity bills, property taxes, shoes, clothing, school supplies and incidentals and there's literally nothing left at the end of the month, Paulo said, adding they've occasionally had to take out short-term loans.
"We have to cut costs, but where?" asked Adela. "We almost never go to the movies, almost never travel, and pizza is only once a month."
Even the maid, long a fixture in middle class household, has been scrapped. She quit three years ago after they couldn't meet her demand for a raise, and they never replaced her.
Though Paulo took Maria to a demonstration last Thursday that brought an estimated 300,000 people into downtown Rio and plans to keep protesting, he's cynical about the prospects for the kind of systemic changes people are calling for.
"I'm completely jaded, but as a father I can't pass on my dark vision of things to my kids," he said, shaking his head. "I have no hope, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't.
"We're a persistent family. We never give up. But in this system, no matter how persistent you are and how hard you work, you can't get ahead."
For 90 day late notices; you just have to wait it out... most borrowers correct the deficiency way before any foreclosure proceedings.
For "auction date set", you need to show up at the auction with cash, but you need to do your homework first, finding out about all liens, and the condition of the property.
For REO (Real Estate Owned), they were already foreclosed on, but one needs to wait until the bank decides to put it on the market.
A mere five miles separated President Obama from congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill when he gave his speech on climate change Tuesday at Georgetown University. But they might have well been on separate planets.
?I?m directing the Environmental Protection Agency to put an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution from power plants,? Obama said in his most substantive speech on climate change as president. He signaled that he is moving forward unilaterally, in the face of congressional resistance to action on this policy.
?You?ll hear from special interests and their allies in Congress that this will kill jobs and crush the economy and basically end American free enterprise as we know it,? Obama said.
By the time the president gave that speech, Washington had already heard from those he implicitly referred to. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., gave a floor speech Tuesday morning criticizing Obama?s ?national energy tax.?
?If the White House moves forward with this war on jobs and raises the cost of energy, that would almost assuredly raise the cost of doing business?and that would likely put jobs, growth, and the future of American manufacturing at risk,? McConnell said.
Obama did say that he was willing to work with Congress on other ways to combat climate change. ?I?m open to all sorts of ideas,? he said. ?Give me better ideas.?
Better ideas that garner any tangible support in Congress are unlikely to surface anytime soon. Instead, McConnell and other Senate Republicans will likely seek to overturn EPA?s climate-change rules once the agency finalizes them, which is still years away.
A gap also exists between Obama and some of the more moderate members of his own party. When asked Tuesday about Obama?s plan, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who is up for reelection in 2014, made it clear she was not necessarily on board.
?I have not even looked at that,? she said. ?I?ve heard about it. The president and I have very strong disagreements on energy policy.?
That didn?t stop the National Republican Senatorial Committee from sending out releases Monday on Landrieu and other Democrats up for reelection, including Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, tying the Democrats to Obama?s climate agenda.
Yet Pryor also says he doesn?t know anything about Obama?s plans. ?I haven?t had a chance to look at it,? he said Tuesday.
At Obama?s speech, the mood was jovial. The White House invited a few hundred climate-change advocates to attend the event, which was otherwise closed to the public. A small handful of lawmakers were also there, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Indeed, some say the gap between Obama and Capitol Hill may be irrelevant now that the president, after years of delay, signaled he was ready to move forward without Congress.
As Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., put it, ?Everything the president announced today, he can do on his own.?
Light shines through a cabin window on seat 17A, the empty seat that an Aeroflot official said was booked in the name of former CIA technician Edward Snowden, shortly before Aeroflot flight SU150 takes off from Moscow to Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 24, 2013. Snowden, who has admitted to leaking National Security Agency secrets, was expected to fly from Russia to Cuba and Venezuela en route to possible asylum in Ecuador, but AP reporters on the flight never saw him get on board. (AP Photo/Max Seddon)
Light shines through a cabin window on seat 17A, the empty seat that an Aeroflot official said was booked in the name of former CIA technician Edward Snowden, shortly before Aeroflot flight SU150 takes off from Moscow to Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 24, 2013. Snowden, who has admitted to leaking National Security Agency secrets, was expected to fly from Russia to Cuba and Venezuela en route to possible asylum in Ecuador, but AP reporters on the flight never saw him get on board. (AP Photo/Max Seddon)
President Barack Obama, right, sit across from Steve Case, right, Chairman and CEO, Revolution LLc, and other CEOs, business owners and entrepreneurs during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013, to discuss immigration reform. Obama hosted the meeting to discuss the importance of commonsense immigration reform including the Congressional Budget Office analysis that concludes immigration reform would promote economic growth and reduce the deficit. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Graphic shows the geographical career path and recent travels of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden; 3c x 5 inches; 146 mm x 127 mm;
White House press secretary Jay Carney gestures during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, June 24, 2013. Carney said the U.S. assumes that Edward Snowden is now in Russia and that the White House now expects Russian authorities to look at all the options available to them to expel Snowden to face charges in the U.S. for releasing secret surveillance information . (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong Sunday, June 23, 2013. The former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. grasped for help Monday from both adversaries and uneasy allies in an effort to catch fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. The White House demanded that he be denied asylum, blasted China for letting him go and urged Russia to "do the right thing" and send him back to America to face espionage charges.
Snowden was believed to be in Russia, where he fled Sunday after weeks of hiding out in Hong Kong following his disclosure of the broad scope of two highly classified counterterror surveillance programs to two newspapers. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans' phone records and worldwide online data in the name of national security.
Snowden had flown from Hong Kong to Russia, and was expected to fly early Monday to Havana, from where he would continue on to Ecuador, where he has applied for asylum. But he didn't get on that plane and his exact whereabouts were unclear.
The founder of WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling organization that has embraced Snowden, said the American was only passing through Russia on his way to an unnamed destination to avoid the reach of U.S. authorities. Julian Assange said Snowden had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries.
Despite its diplomatic tough talk, the U.S. faces considerable difficulty in securing cooperation on Snowden from nations with whom it has chilly relations.
The White House said Hong Kong's refusal to detain Snowden had "unquestionably" hurt relations between the United States and China. While Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy from the rest of China, experts said Beijing probably orchestrated Snowden's exit in an effort to remove an irritant in Sino-U.S. relations. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping met earlier this month in California to smooth over rough patches in the countries' relationship, including allegations of hacking into each other's computer systems.
Secretary of State John Kerry urged Moscow to "do the right thing" amid high-level pressure on Russia to turn over Snowden.
"We're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed," Obama told reporters when asked if he was confident that Russia would expel Snowden.
Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, said the U.S. was expecting the Russians "to look at the options available to them to expel Mr. Snowden back to the United States to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged."
Carney was less measured about China.
"The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust," he said. "And we think that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. ...This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship."
Snowden has acknowledged revealing details of top-secret surveillance programs that sweep up millions of phone and Internet records daily. He is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor through Booz Allen to be a computer systems analyst. In that job, he gained access to documents ? many of which he has given to The Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government.
Snowden also told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data," and is believed to have more than 200 additional sensitive documents.
Assange and attorneys for WikiLeaks assailed the U.S. as "bullying" foreign nations into refusing asylum to Snowden. WikiLeaks counsel Michael Ratner said Snowden is protected as a whistleblower by the same international treaties that the U.S. has in the past used to criticize policies in China and African nations.
The U.S. government's dual lines of diplomacy ? harsh with China, hopeful with the Russians ? came just days after Obama met separately with leaders of both countries in an effort to close gaps on some of the major disputes facing them. Additionally, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. has made demands to "a series of governments," including Ecuador, that Snowden be barred from any international travel other than to be returned to the U.S.
Ventrell said he did not know if that included Iceland. Icelandic officials have confirmed receiving an informal request for asylum conveyed by WikiLeaks, which has strong links to the tiny North Atlantic nation. But authorities there have insisted that Snowden must be on Icelandic soil before making a formal request.
Ecuador's president and foreign minister declared that national sovereignty and universal principles of human rights ? not U.S. prodding ? would govern any decision they might make on granting asylum to Snowden.
Ecuador has rejected some previous U.S. efforts at cooperation and has been helping Assange avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London.
Formally, Snowden's application for Ecuadoran asylum remains only under consideration. But Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino made little effort to disguise his government's position. He told reporters in Hanoi that the choice Ecuador faced in hosting Snowden was "betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country."
President Rafael Correa said on Twitter that "we will take the decision that we feel most suitable, with absolute sovereignty." Correa, who took office in 2007, is a frequent critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and is an ally of leftist president Evo Morales of Bolivia. Correa also had aligned himself with Venezuela's late leader, Hugo Chavez, a chief U.S. antagonist in the region for years.
In April 2011 the Obama administration expelled the Ecuadorean ambassador to Washington after the U.S. envoy to Ecuador, Heather Hodges, was expelled for making corruption allegations about senior Ecuadorean police authorities in confidential documents disclosed by WikiLeaks.
American experts said the U.S. will have limited, if any, influence to persuade governments to turn over Snowden if he heads to Cuba or nations in South America that are seen as hostile to Washington.
"There's little chance Ecuador would give him back" if that country agrees to take him, said James F. Jeffrey, a former ambassador and career diplomat.
Steve Saltzburg, a former senior Justice Department prosecutor, said it's little surprise that China refused to hand over Snowden, and he predicted Russia won't either.
"We've been talking the talk about how both these countries abuse people who try to express their First Amendment rights, so I think that neither country is going to be very inclined to help us very much," said Saltzburg, now a law professor at George Washington University in Washington. "That would be true with Cuba if he ends up there."
The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition but was rebuffed by Hong Kong officials who said the U.S. request did not fully comply with their laws. The Justice Department rejected that claim, saying its request met all of the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Hong Kong.
Snowden had been believed to have been in a transit area in Moscow's airport where he would not be considered as entering Russian territory. Assange declined to discuss where Snowden was but said he was safe. The U.S. has revoked his passport.
___
Associated Press writers Julie Pace, Eileen Sullivan, Kimberly Dozier and Robert Burns in Washington, Lynn Berry, Vladimir Isachenkov and Max Seddon in Moscow, Kevin Chan in Hong Kong and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
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