Ancient DNA was extracted and analyzed using a novel sequencing approach.
By Alan Boyle
Degraded DNA molecules from a group of human relatives who went extinct tens of thousands of years ago have been reassembled using a new technique, yielding a genetic code for the mysterious Denisovans that meets the standard for modern humans.
The findings are based on samples drawn from 40 milligrams of ground-up bone from a Siberian girl's finger. They confirm what scientists saw in a much less detailed genetic sequence they produced a couple of years ago, and address some of the deep questions surrounding the Denisovans. But they also raise a few new questions, including a basic one: Just how old was the sample they analyzed?
"The amazing thing is that we can sequence the whole genome to very high accuracy, but there is too little carbon in it to do a date," Svante P??bo, a genetic researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, told reporters during a teleconference this week. P??bo is the leader of the research team behind a paper on the project, published online today by the journal Science.
The finger bone was found in southern Siberia's Denisova Cave during an excavation in 2008. That dig was aimed at untangling the genetic relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans, and bones representing both those species were indeed found in the cave. But the initial analysis of the finger-bone sample revealed a genome that was neither Neanderthal nor classically human. That tiny bone and two molars that were also found in the cave represent the only known specimens of the Denisovan race.
MPIEA
A replica of the Denisovan girl's finger bone sits on a pinky finger, providing a sense of scale.
Previous analyses of the Denisovan genome were considered merely a rough draft, doing no better than an average of 1.9 readings for every molecular base pair in the DNA, or 1.9X. In comparison, the latest analysis goes to a coverage depth of 30X, which is typical of whole-genome sequencing for present-day humans.
The accuracy was increased by taking short, degraded double-strands of DNA, which couldn't be analyzed ?the usual tools for gene sequencing, and "unzipping" them into single strands. That made it easier to attach specially designed molecules known as adapters and read out the DNA code, piece by piece.
"There are many things you can do with such a high-coverage genome that you cannot do with the low-quality genome that we had before," said Matthias Meyer, a colleague of P??bo's at the Max Planck Institute who developed with the new sequencing technique. Here are the main findings reported today:
A comparison of chromosomes that the girl inherited from her mother and father indicated that there was surprisingly low genetic diversity in the Denisovan population. That would suggest that the Denisovan population never was very large, and could explain why the group faded into extinction as populations of modern humans spread out. The analysis also confirms that the girl carried genes that have been associated with dark skin, brown hair and brown eyes. "It is very likely that they were dark-skinned, and that is really everything we can say about that," P??bo?said, "The truth is, of course, that one can say quite little about how people looked from just studying the DNA sequences."?
Detailed study of the "gene flow" over time suggests that the Denisovans interbred with Neanderthals as well as our own species, Homo sapiens. The analysis confirmed previous findings that Denisovans were more genetically similar to Neanderthals than to anatomically modern humans. So does that mean that Denisovans were a separate species? "I really stay away from species designation," P??bo?said. "I would not call it a different species, but clearly different groups with a different history. I would not call the Neanderthals a different species from humans either, actually."
A comparison of the genome with those of modern-day human populations confirmed that Melanesians, Australian Aborigines and other Southeast Asian islanders had the most in common genetically with the Denisovans. The Denisovan contribution to the genomes of present-day Papuans was estimated at 6 percent.
A deeper analysis of the Papuan-Denisovan connection showed that the Denisovan contribution was lower for the sex-linked X chromosome than it was for other chromosomes. That might suggest that the Denisovan males were more likely than the females to interbreed with modern humans. Or it could mean there was a genetic defect on the X chromosome that led to its elimination from modern-day genomes.
The researchers were able to triangulate, using the Denisovan genome as well as the genetic codes for Neanderthals and modern humans, to come up with an unexpected result: Present-day east Asians and Native Americans appear to have more in common genetically with the Neanderthals than present-day Europeans, even though Europe was thought to be the main hangout for Neanderthals hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The researchers also drew up a catalog of more than 100,000 genetic differences that apparently arose between modern humans and the now-extinct Denisovans and Neanderthals in the past 100,000 years or so. About 260 of the changes affect protein function, P??bo said. "It's quite interesting to me to note that eight of them have to do with brain function and brain development ? the connectivity in the brain, how synapses between nerve cells function. And some of them have to do with genes that, for example, can cause autism when these genes are mutated," he said. "I think this is perhaps in the long term, to me, the most fascinating thing about this: what it will tell us in the future about what makes us special in the world, relative to Denisovans and Neanderthals."
Genetic sequencing alone can't tell scientists how long ago the Denisovans lived, however. P??bo and his colleagues factored in assumptions about the mutation rate of the human genome to estimate that the girl with the finger bone lived somewhere around 74,000 to 82,000 years ago. But a separate line of evidence, based on the rock layering in the cave, suggested that the bone was 30,000 to 50,000 years old.
"I'm very unsure about the archaeological dates, but I would say I'm equally unsure about our molecular dates," P??bo told reporters.
Similarly, the researchers give a wide range of dates for their estimate of the time when the Denisovan population split off from the evolutionary line leading to modern humans: 172,000 to 700,000 years ago.
"Most of the uncertainty in that number ... comes from the uncertainty at present about the human mutation rate," said another co-author of the paper, David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute. "There is a lot of debate in the community about the rate at which mutations accumulate."
Future studies, involving DNA analysis as well as carbon-dating analysis of other specimens from the Denisova Cave, may help clear up that uncertainty. But for the team behind the research announced today, an even higher priority is to generate a gene sequence for the Neanderthals that's as good as the sequence they now have for the once-mysterious Denisovans.
John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said the newly published paper was "solid work."
"It's really neat that they've organized a catalog of things that humans have that are not present in this ancient genome," Hawks, who studies human origins but was not part of P??bo's research team, told me. He said the study of comparative brain genetics, for example, was becoming an increasingly important area, "and this study is part of it."
"We know that the human brain is a big target of evolution, but establishing the order of these changes is an important step now," he said. "This gives us a time stamp on some of those changes."
The technique developed for the Denisovan DNA could be applied much more widely in the future. Meyer said his method could be used on modern-day forensic samples that are too degraded to be analyzed using current techniques. And who knows? Anthropologists may find still more long-lost, extinct cousins in the fossil record whose genomes need to be done.
More about our human and near-human relatives:
In addition to P??bo, Meyer and Reich, authors of the Science paper, "A High-Coverage Genome Sequence From an Archaic Denisovan Individual," include Martin Kircher, Marie-Theres Gansauge, Heng Li, Fernando Racimo, Swapan Mallick, Joshua G. Schraiber, Flora Jay, Kay Pr?fer, Cesare de Filippo, Peter H. Sudmant, Can Alkan, Qiaomei Fui, Ron Do, Nadin Rohland, Arti Tandon, Michael Siebauer, Richard E. Green, Katarzyna Bryc, Adrian W. Briggs, Udo Stenzel, Jesse Dabney, Jay Shendure, Jacob Kitzman, Michael F. Hammer, Michael V. Shunkov, Anatoli P. Derevianko, Nick Patterson, Aida M. Andr?s, Evan E. Eichler, Montgomery Slatkin and Janet Kelso.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Friday that Haiti was struggling to cope with a cholera epidemic that has killed thousands and deteriorating conditions in tent camps as aid groups withdraw from the impoverished country due to a lack of funding.
In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Ban said there had been an increase in the number of cholera cases since the rainy season began in early March and the World Health Organization had projected there could be up to 112,000 cases during 2012.
The cholera outbreak has sickened almost 600,000 people and killed more than 7,400 in the Caribbean nation since October 2010. Some Haitians accused Nepalese U.N. troops of sparking the epidemic after their camp latrines contaminated a river.
"The resurgence of the cholera outbreak is particularly worrying since non-governmental organizations which responded at the beginning of the epidemic are phasing out due to lack of funding," Ban said.
"As a consequence, the support for the transfer of responsibilities to the Health Ministry, as foreseen in the national strategy, has decreased, as has the capacity for the effective treatment of cholera cases," he said.
Cholera is an infection that causes severe diarrhea and can lead to dehydration and death. It occurs in places with poor sanitation and can be treated by drinking clean fluids.
Haiti is still struggling to lift itself from the rubble left by an earthquake in January 2010 that killed about 300,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless.
CUT TO PEACEKEEPERS
Ban said more than 390,000 people were still living in camps.
"Living conditions in the camps have deteriorated as humanitarian actors progressively withdraw due, among other reasons, to lack of funding," the secretary-general said.
"Haitians living in camps where sanitation standards are inadequate are extremely vulnerable to natural hazards as well as to acute diarrheal infections and cholera," he said. "Over 230,000 internally displaced persons are projected to still be living in camps by the end of 2012."
He said that by March 2012, only half the $5.50 billion pledged by the international community at a fundraising conference in 2010 had been spent.
Ban recommended that the Security Council extend a U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti for a further year, but that the number of authorized troops and police be reduced by 1,710 to 8,871. There are now some 10,000 peacekeepers in Haiti and Ban suggested a gradual drawdown be completed by June 2013.
U.N. peacekeepers are gradually handing over security responsibility to the Haitian National Police.
The force, known as the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, was established in 2004 and has been helping Haiti's short-staffed and ill-equipped police maintain security, especially during elections plagued by fraud and unrest. The force size was increased after the earthquake.
The force's activities would be further narrowed to core tasks achievable with a reasonable time "aimed at consolidating stabilization gains to a point beyond which the presence of a large peacekeeping operation will no longer be required," Ban said.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Peter Cooney)
The Math Dude: Quick & Dirty Tips to Make Math Simpler
By Jason Marshall
Scientific American presents Math Dude by Quick & Dirty Tips. Scientific American and Quick & Dirty Tips are both Macmillan companies.
Today we?re going to learn how math makes it easy to estimate things that seem practically impossible to calculate. In particular, since summer is in full swing, we?re going to take math to the beach and think about the age-old question: How many grains of sand are on all of Earth?s beaches? As long time Math Dude fans may recall, we first learned about using math to make estimates when we watched Secret Agent Math daringly calculate how many breaths of air there are in a sealed room. So why are we revisiting this topic? Because learning to combine your brain with math to make estimates is an absolutely invaluable skill?and it?s a skill that?s only developed with practice. Which is exactly what we?re going to do today.
Step 1: Make a Plan Sometimes it?s fun to jump right in and do something without really knowing what you?re doing. And while that kind of spontaneity is great for things like claymation and spur-of-the-moment weekend trips, it?s a really bad idea for tackling math problems. As such, the first thing we need to do today is make a plan for figuring out how many grains of sand there are on Earth?s beaches. I know this might sound like a nearly impossible task, but rest assured that overcoming these seemingly long odds?and the sense of dread they instill in the hearts of otherwise brave souls?is precisely what our plan will do.
The best way to tackle a tough problem like this is to break it down into easier parts. In our case, if we can estimate how many grains of sand there are in a typical volume of beach (say the number of grains per cubic meter), and then estimate what the volume of sand is on all the beaches of the world (say in cubic meters), then all we have to do to find the total number of grains of sand is multiply these two numbers together. Easy, right? Well, okay?perhaps this still isn?t exactly easy. But let?s continue marching bravely forward to see if we can tackle each of these sub-problems on their own, and then to see if this divide-and-conquer approach can help make the seemingly impossible possible.
Patent practitioners in my experience live in a vaccuum. ?Often, they think patent practice is not subject to the same rules as other areas. ?But, when a motion to disqualify or malpractice claim is brought, they suddenly learn that the rules that other lawyers abide by apply with equal force in patent practice.
Client identity is one of those issues. ?In a series of posts, I'll address some common issues in patent practice. ?Today deals with entities, such as corporations, partnerships, LLC's and the like.
If your firm represents corporations, you need to be aware that if you don't deal with the issue of client identity effectively in your engagement letter, you may find that you have a lot more clients than you thought. ?For example, if you represent a third tier subsidiary of some company, you may be unable to be adverse to any affiliate of that company -- no matter how attenuated its relationship is with your "real" client.
If you represent one corporation, how do you know if you represent all others? ?The best method is to specify: ?"by representing ____, we do not represent its affiliates, parents, subsidiaries, or other owners or constituents." ?If you don't put that, you're more likely than not going to have to look at what law applies, and you'll find there is a split. The majority approach relies on a multi-factor test (this one from a New York bar opinion, but it is typical):
1.1?Does the current corporate
client have an objectively reasonable belief that its affiliate has de facto
become a current client of the law firm, either because of the law firm?s
relationship and dealings with the affiliate during the representation, or
because of significant overlaps in personnel and infrastructure between the
corporate client and its affiliate?;
1.1.1.?Do the current corporate
client and its affiliate share the same directors, officers, management, or
other personnel?;
1.1.2.?Do the current corporate
client and its affiliate share the same offices?;
1.1.3.?Do the current corporate
client and its affiliate share the same legal department (or report to the same
general counsel)?;
1.1.4.?Do the current corporate
client and its affiliate share a substantial number of corporate services?; and
1.1.5.?Is there substantial
integration in infrastructure between the current corporate client and its
affiliate, such as shared computer networks, e-mail, intranet, interoffice
mail, health benefit plans, letterhead and business cards, etc.?
2. Is there a significant risk that the law firm?s representation of
either the current corporate client or the adverse client in the adverse
representation will be materially limited by the law firm?s responsibilities to
the other client?
3.???????? During
its representation of the corporate client, did the law firm learn confidences
and secrets from either the client or its affiliate that would be so material
to the adverse representation as to preclude the law firm from proceeding?
In a recent patent case, the court also looked to whether the company the lawyer wanted to sue used the same logos as its client... You get the point.
Now let me really scare you by combining this knowledge with the post below about maintenance fees and adversity: if your firm is calendaring a single maintenance fee for a subsidiary of some huge corporate conglomerate, you may need to treat that entire conglomerate as a current client -- and you can't be adverse to any part of it, and adversity includes far more than just suing it!
Well, you might - if you knew what a trustworthy guy I am :)
But I know that?s nowhere good enough. I know I would need to earn it.
"Do I trust you?" is a question your web visitors are probably asking themselves right now.
Do they trust your title tag description and snippet enough to click the link? If they click the link, and land on your site, do the trust you enough to stay? Do they trust you enough to click deeper into your site? Do they trust you enough to hand over their e-mail address, or their credit card details?
If your site ranks well, but visitors don't trust it, is your search marketing campaign broken? Blowing an opportunity to form a trust relationship, which can be broken in less than a few seconds online, earns nothing but a click-back.
Webmasters need to establish trust quickly in order to get people to take the next step.
I'm Trustworthy!
All webmasters look to establish trust. We intuitively know that in order to convince someone else of something, they first need to trust us. No webmaster would want to project an air of untrustworthiness, although some mistakenly do, by overlooking a few simple steps.
If you have an existing site, or you are planning a new one, consider undertaking an audit of trust factors.
Your visitors will want to know....
1. Who Am I Dealing With?
This is especially important online, because there is little context to our interaction.
If we walk into a doctors office, we may see medical equipment, and nurses, and qualifications on the wall. It provides us with sufficient context to establish a level of trust that this person is likely a qualified doctor who knows what she is doing. The environment gives us a pretty good idea of who we are dealing with.
Not so online.
A web site, especially a website that is previously unknown to us, provides little in the way of context. Anonymity can lend an air of the mysterious, but it doesn't do much to help establish trust.
Let visitors know who they are dealing with. This doesn?t necessarily involve telling them your life story, or showing them a photo of you and the kids, although that can work well for personalized forms of marketing.
If you don?t already have them, consider adding staff photos and position details, detailed company description and history, and ensure address and contact details are prominently displayed. If you have a physical location, show it. Provide a map. The tech-savvy will likely want to see you on social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, too.
This point is obvious, I know. Most webmasters do it. Audit your site to see if you provides visitors a clear idea of who they are dealing with.
2. Overcome Fear
There is fear in new engagements.
Not spine tingling fear. Just a low level fear of the new. Your visitors may fear your site is wasting their time. They may fear they might be ripped off. They may fear you won't deliver on the promise made explicit in your title tag and heading.
Look at ways to counter fear of the new.
The familiar carries less fear than the unfamiliar. Obviously, if you've already established a reputation, then you will already be familiar to your visitors, and therefore likely appear more trustworthy that someone a visitor doesn't know.
But search marketing is often focused on attracting the new visitor, so an established reputation may not be something we can rely on. This is why it can be good idea to leverage reputation from elsewhere.
For example, a commonly used tactic is the ?As Seen In...? references used by sites such as ForSaleByOwner.com. Whilst also providing credibility by association, it is also a means of leveraging the trust in those brands with which the visitor is already familiar.
3. Will This Work For Me?
There?s more to relevance than matching a keyword. How will your solution work for your visitor? How do you know what is really relevant to them when all you have for a clue is a keyword phrase?
This is easier said than done. You need to get inside their head. You need to know their questions and objections and be able to answer them. If people feel you care about solving their problems, they are more likely to trust you.
But how?
Listening. Being clear about what problem you?re going to solve. Is it a real problem, or an imagined one? Look for opportunities to have your visitor define their problem in their own terms, using surveys, visitor tracking, market research (i.e. the language they use in forums, on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, et al)
The best sites seem to know exactly what you are thinking. They reflect you, back at you.
This can be underlined with your copy. Use ?you? as opposed to ?I?. Look how many times ?you? has been used in this copy. This is a very effective selling technique, because your visitors really don?t care about you, they care about them.
4. Deliver
We've dealt with superficial areas, most of which can just as easily be abused by the manipulative and deceitful as used properly by the honest and trustworthy.
Trust also a process. People will judge you by your actions.
Tell them what you'll do.
Do it.
Tell them you've done it.
Does your website demonstrate this? One good way to show process is by using a case study. You outline the problem. Show how you planned to solve it. Then you show that you solved it. For extra points, show how happy people were with the outcome.
Offer free trials, where possible. Offer free downloads. Look for tangible ways to prove you do what you say you do.
Once a visitor has engaged your services, ensure your process is transparent, communicated and you do what you said you?d do.
5. What Will Everyone Else Think?
This is related to fear.
Will I be ridiculed for choosing your service? Made to feel stupid? There was a saying in the IT industry that ?no one got fired for buying IBM?. It wasn?t that IBM was necessarily a better provider, it was that many people used them, so there was perceived strength in numbers of the tried and true. People tend to go where other people are. Can you provide similar social validation?
Customer references are a great way to provide social validation. If the customers are from companies with which your visitor is already familiar, all the better. Faces. Lot?s of happy faces provide social validation.
Also include the number of people who use, or have used, your service.
In summary:
Have you let people know who they are dealing with?
Have you made reference to the familiar?
Have you addressed their needs in their own terms?
Have you included references and case studies?
Have you done what you?d said you?d do?
PS: Thanks to Seth Godin for the inspiration, off whos' post I?m riffing :)
Tucked away into a dark corner of Panasonic's booth is the clear highlight of the outfit's IFA 2012 showcase: a 145-inch 8K plasma display panel. Developed in partnership with Japan's NHK, the prototype is merely a proof of concept for the broadcaster's planned 2020 launch of Super Hi Vision TV. In person, the flat screen is truly awe-inspiring, offering such richness of detail that even up-close we weren't able to discern any pixels, while colors appeared balanced and natural. Overall, the image quality -- 16 times that of regular full HD -- nearly apes the real-world images it replicates. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait sometime before this tech trickles down to the mass market level. In the meantime, content yourself with a brief video demo after the break.
ScienceDaily (Aug. 29, 2012) ? Despite evidence from their recent study that populations of two river herring species are dangerously low, ecologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Stony Brook University say removing dams and adding fishways can still revive alewife and blueback herring numbers in New England and help to restore a long-neglected natural link between marine and freshwater ecosystems.
Ecologists Adrian Jordaan at UMass Amherst, Michael Frisk at Stony Brook and lead author Carolyn Hall, an independent researcher, also say if numbers of these anadromous fish, which live in the ocean but spawn in fresh water, rebound it would be good news for their predators including striped bass, tuna, Atlantic salmon and cod -- all human dining favorites that are experiencing declines.
Current management of predator fish species in isolation isn't effective, the authors say. They call for a realignment of restoration goals to aid economically important fisheries and recognize the critical interdependence of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. Their work appears in a recent issue of the journal BioScience.
Jordaan says, "Our research does point to a really big deficit in these fish populations, but if we can agree on a restoration path, using fishways and some dam removal as is already happening now, we can alleviate many of the pressures on these fish. We're not going to fix it overnight, but if we continue forward with intelligent planning, if we can get river herring into the old ponds they used to spawn in, I think we could see a great deal of improvement."
Results of his study with Hall show that damming significantly altered the ecology of coastal waterways much earlier than previously suspected, by removing a huge reservoir of forage fish that the ecologists call a "key vector of marine-terrestrial nutrient exchange."
For this analysis, Hall, Jordaan and Frisk used a combination of harvest data and a fishery-independent habitat model using historical dam records to reconstruct for the first time a picture of fish populations in nine Maine rivers between 1600 and 1900. They figure cumulative lost fisheries production of 11 billion fish occurred from 1750 to 1900 due to dams, that is, fish lost to harvest. They also estimate the number of young fish missing from the system (not available to ocean predators) from a 95 percent loss of spawning habitat at 100 million in 1700, increasing to 1.4 billion fish per year by 1850.
Jordaan acknowledges, "Those are shocking new numbers for biologists to hear, but we were also surprised that the losses came so early. Our numbers show the rate of damming and its impact was dramatic. We didn't expect to see it happening at this magnitude by 1850."
Among other techniques, the researchers identified the location of catches to show how the range shrank throughout Maine. As dams went into major rivers, the catch moved into smaller and smaller watersheds. Jordaan says, "If these nine rivers had been left completely unobstructed, they would have produced the numbers of fish caught in the entire United States in the 1950s. Our study puts it all in real terms. Within the overall perspective of the eastern United States, the loss is overwhelming."
Of course, damming the major rivers of New England fueled the industrial revolution in the United States, making it a world power, "but it came at a cost, and we're paying it now," he adds.
When fish populations are at low abundance as they are now, fish are less able to meet environmental challenges such as climate change and pollution. The current low production capacity of these fish is "coming back to haunt us," he adds. "We harvest too many alewife and blueback herring. That's where we are now, and New England is viewed as having the healthiest populations of these fish. But we have only a small fraction of habitat left, and we see climate change beginning to have an effect."
The authors say another aspect of the study that should not be lost on fishery managers, ecologists and waterway planners is that forage fish link phytoplankton in the ocean to our dinner tables, and their role in the ecosystem has been gravely undervalued.
"We feel these species represent a lost connection between marine and freshwater systems that is more important than the numbers," explains Jordaan. "The modern science of ecology grew up after all these changes had already occurred. So we've failed to appreciate how interconnected the marine and freshwater systems were in pre-colonial times. We can't appreciate its significance for a whole range of factors."
Their conclusions serve as a cautionary tale, the authors point out, for planners in China, Laos and Cambodia, where engineers are on the verge of constructing 200 new dams, 11 of them main stem, on the Mekong River. It is the second most biodiverse freshwater system and host to the world's most productive inland fisheries in the world.
"Losing the connections and ecosystem services provided by anadromous species will have lasting, ecosystem-wide impacts that may not be compensated through fish passage technology," they say.
This research was funded by a Mia J. Tegner Memorial Research Grant and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Carolyn J. Hall, Adrian Jordaan, and Michael G. Frisk. Centuries of Anadromous Forage Fish Loss: Consequences for Ecosystem Connectivity and Productivity. BioScience, 2012
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Contact: Sean Nealon sean.nealon@ucr.edu 951-827-1287 University of California - Riverside
Research supports several California measures that aim to increase the use of renewable fuels and reduce greenhouse gases
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) Researchers at the University of California, Riverside's College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) are working with the state of California to develop diesel formulations with higher levels of renewable biofuels.
This research supports several California legislative measures and regulations that aim to increase the use of renewable fuels and reduce greenhouse gases. These include AB 32, which requires the state to develop regulations that will reduce carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and the California Air Resources Board's (CARB's) Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
In the first major step of this effort, researchers at CE-CERT have evaluated the potential impacts of using biodiesel in diesel sold through California. Biodiesel may provide significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions because it is produced from renewable sources, such as soybeans, that absorb carbon dioxide while growing.
Biodiesel use and production is already expanding rapidly in the United States. Over the past decade, it jumped from 2 million gallons in 2002 to 1.1 billion gallons in 2011, according to the National Biodiesel Board.
Although biodiesel provides benefits in a number of emissions components, such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter, one issue with biodiesel use in California is its potential to increase nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, a key contributor to smog.
The CE-CERT study found that adding biodiesel at levels of 20 percent and higher would likely increase NOx emissions, but several strategies were proposed that could potentially mitigate such increases, including blending with more advanced renewable diesel fuels or through the use of additives. Results were less conclusive for biodiesel blends near the 5 percent, which are the levels most likely to be implemented in the state in the near future.
"The results show that research is still needed to find optimal biofuel blends that achieve maximum environmental benefits in all aspects," said Thomas D. Durbin, a research engineer at CE-CERT and the lead author of the recent journal article in Environmental Science and Technology where the findings were outlined.
He continued: "One of CE-CERT's missions is to help bring new environmental, sustainable technologies to the marketplace and we are now one step closer with biodiesel by understanding how small changes in fuel composition can affect emissions."
The research finding in the journal article, and a related report, are the most comprehensive look at the impact of blending biodiesels with California diesel, which is the cleanest in the nation. CE-CERT researchers have also done extensive studies comparing California diesel with diesel fuels found in other states, where less stringent fuel emission standards apply.
Two researchers at CE-CERT, which is part of UC Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering, co-authored the paper with Durbin. They were: Kent Johnson, an assistant research faculty member at the center, and Maryam Hajbabaei, a graduate student researcher at the center. Three CARB researchers were also co-authors: Robert Okamoto, Alexander Mitchell and Marcie Pullman.
The same CE-CERT team, along with Wayne Miller, CE-CERT's associate director, and scientists at UC Davis and Arizona State University, produced a related report for CARB.
The findings outlined in the journal article stem from tests using two heavy-duty engines: a 2006 engine with no exhaust aftertreatment, and a 2007 engine with a diesel particle filter (DPF). The tests were conducted on an engine dynamometer over four test cycles that simulated different driving conditions.
In the coming months, several follow-up studies are planned, including: more comprehensive testing with 5 percent biodiesel blends; adding additives to reduce NOx emissions in 20 percent biodiesel blends; and evaluating the impact of biodiesel blends have on emissions from light-duty vehicles, such as passenger cars. This will include the development of certified biofuel and biodiesel blends that can be sold in diesel fuel throughout California.
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Contact: Sean Nealon sean.nealon@ucr.edu 951-827-1287 University of California - Riverside
Research supports several California measures that aim to increase the use of renewable fuels and reduce greenhouse gases
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) Researchers at the University of California, Riverside's College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) are working with the state of California to develop diesel formulations with higher levels of renewable biofuels.
This research supports several California legislative measures and regulations that aim to increase the use of renewable fuels and reduce greenhouse gases. These include AB 32, which requires the state to develop regulations that will reduce carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and the California Air Resources Board's (CARB's) Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
In the first major step of this effort, researchers at CE-CERT have evaluated the potential impacts of using biodiesel in diesel sold through California. Biodiesel may provide significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions because it is produced from renewable sources, such as soybeans, that absorb carbon dioxide while growing.
Biodiesel use and production is already expanding rapidly in the United States. Over the past decade, it jumped from 2 million gallons in 2002 to 1.1 billion gallons in 2011, according to the National Biodiesel Board.
Although biodiesel provides benefits in a number of emissions components, such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter, one issue with biodiesel use in California is its potential to increase nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, a key contributor to smog.
The CE-CERT study found that adding biodiesel at levels of 20 percent and higher would likely increase NOx emissions, but several strategies were proposed that could potentially mitigate such increases, including blending with more advanced renewable diesel fuels or through the use of additives. Results were less conclusive for biodiesel blends near the 5 percent, which are the levels most likely to be implemented in the state in the near future.
"The results show that research is still needed to find optimal biofuel blends that achieve maximum environmental benefits in all aspects," said Thomas D. Durbin, a research engineer at CE-CERT and the lead author of the recent journal article in Environmental Science and Technology where the findings were outlined.
He continued: "One of CE-CERT's missions is to help bring new environmental, sustainable technologies to the marketplace and we are now one step closer with biodiesel by understanding how small changes in fuel composition can affect emissions."
The research finding in the journal article, and a related report, are the most comprehensive look at the impact of blending biodiesels with California diesel, which is the cleanest in the nation. CE-CERT researchers have also done extensive studies comparing California diesel with diesel fuels found in other states, where less stringent fuel emission standards apply.
Two researchers at CE-CERT, which is part of UC Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering, co-authored the paper with Durbin. They were: Kent Johnson, an assistant research faculty member at the center, and Maryam Hajbabaei, a graduate student researcher at the center. Three CARB researchers were also co-authors: Robert Okamoto, Alexander Mitchell and Marcie Pullman.
The same CE-CERT team, along with Wayne Miller, CE-CERT's associate director, and scientists at UC Davis and Arizona State University, produced a related report for CARB.
The findings outlined in the journal article stem from tests using two heavy-duty engines: a 2006 engine with no exhaust aftertreatment, and a 2007 engine with a diesel particle filter (DPF). The tests were conducted on an engine dynamometer over four test cycles that simulated different driving conditions.
In the coming months, several follow-up studies are planned, including: more comprehensive testing with 5 percent biodiesel blends; adding additives to reduce NOx emissions in 20 percent biodiesel blends; and evaluating the impact of biodiesel blends have on emissions from light-duty vehicles, such as passenger cars. This will include the development of certified biofuel and biodiesel blends that can be sold in diesel fuel throughout California.
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Our children have, or will soon be going, back to school. The lazy days of summer will soon be over. If your kids are used to not doing much all day or if they have been sleeping in, it?s time to get them started on a routine again. Going back to school doesn?t have to be stressful. If you plan and organize things, you can make the transition very smooth for your entire family.
(Photo Credit: postconsumers.com)
Getting ready for back to school means prepping your house to fit the needs of busy school kids. Managing breakfast, lunches, after school snacks and homework can be a lot if you don?t plan properly. Stocking your kids backpacks with school supplies isn?t enough. You should make sure that your house has the right tools for students also.
Organizing your home office
Students nowadays have to be able to access a computer, printer and the Internet. Your local library can provide those services as well. Making sure you have these basics in your home office can really encourage your kids to be successful at doing their homework.?Help your kids make a smooth transition back to school by stocking your home office with the following:
printer paper
printer ink
pencils/pens/pencil sharpener
writing paper
crayons/colored pencils/ markers/highlighters
erasers
notebooks
calendars/planners
calculator
Organizing your kitchen
Snacks and meals during the Summer might have been a little less on the healthy side. You and your kids will probably eat out less. Stocking your fridge with healthy snacks and drinks will help provide energy for your students. Here are some easy snack ideas packed with nutrition and energy. These snacks are easy for little ones to get their hands on!
carrot sticks
celery sticks
apples
almonds/trail mix
granola bars
(Photo Credit: myrenovo.com)
Wexy Lunch and Munch Bags has a downloadable healthy snack eBook that is packed with ideas and recipes for snacks for your kids. One of my favorite recipes from their eBook is ?Organic Banana in a Blanket.
?Organic Banana in a Blanket?
1 tortilla
1 tbsp smooth raw organic peanut butter
1 medium organic banana
1 tsp organic maple syrup grade B or raw honey
1 WEXY bag
Lay tortilla on a plate. Spread peanut butter evenly on the tortilla. Peel and place banana on the tortilla and then roll up the tortilla. Place tortilla on plate. Drizzle maple syrup or honey on top. Place it in your WEXY snack bags and your ready for an amazing treat!
Organizing your kids? free time
(Photo Credit: ontimesupplies.com)
Kids have a lot of free time during the summer to do a whole lot of nothing! With school in motion, their little brains need to spend more time reading, writing and doing homework as opposed to playing. As the summer draws to an end, I would suggest helping your kids get back into the swing of things by starting a ?school? routine a few weeks before school actually starts. Here is a simple pre-back to school schedule:
get to bed early
wake up early?two weeks before school starts wake the kids up at or around the same time they need to be up for school. You want to be able to get out the door in a timely manner when school starts. This will help things go more smoothly once school starts.
have some morning reading time
exercise/ go to the park
start assigning chores- if you were more lenient about chores during the summer make sure to assign more tasks. Making their bed, washing the dishes, doing laundry, etc. This way the kids will get used to doing instead of just sitting.
Everyone wants the school year to start off on the right foot. With these few suggestions, I think you will be able to encourage a healthy back to school lifestyle. Help your children feel responsible and successful in their daily life before they go back to school. These ideas should help your children feel confident to go back to school.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Airlines are cancelling all New Orleans flights in anticipation of hurricane winds and rain from Isaac.
A brief news release from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport said all airlines would stop flying at the end of Monday's schedule, with no flights scheduled Tuesday.
The move comes after large cancellations in Southern Florida on Sunday due to Tropical Storm Isaac.
The storm is over the Gulf of Mexico. It is expected to grow into a Category 1 hurricane and hit land late Tuesday night. A Category 1 hurricane has winds ranging from 74 mph to 95 mph.
(Reuters) - A 15-year-old boy suspected of shooting and critically wounding a fellow student on the first day of classes at a Baltimore high school has been charged with first-degree attempted murder, police said Tuesday.
Robert Wayne Gladden Jr. is being charged as an adult and also faces a first-degree assault charge stemming from Monday's shooting, according to Baltimore County Police Department spokeswoman Susan Hunt.
Hunt said Gladden, who is being held without bail, is cooperating with authorities. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for September 7.
The 17-year-old victim, whose name has not been released, remains in critical condition at the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma center. The extent of his injuries is not known.
The shooting took place just before 11 a.m. at Perry Hall High School, voted one of America's Best High Schools by Newsweek magazine in 2010, in suburban northeast Baltimore.
Police believe the attacker chose his victim at random, another police spokeswoman, Julia Hardgrove, said on Monday. She said several other students suffered minor injuries.
The suspect was tackled by faculty members and held until police arrived, officials said.
The shooting is the latest incident of gun violence in a summer plagued by troubling shootings in the United States.
In July, a gunman killed 12 people and wounded 58 at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. In August, a suspect described by authorities as a white supremacist killed six people outside a Sikh temple in Wisconsin before committing suicide.
IRVING, Texas (AP) ? Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Monday that the team has a set of guidelines in place for Dez Bryant to hold the talented young receiver accountable.
Garrett didn't go into specifics or describe potential discipline for not abiding by the rules. He said the Cowboys (No. 15 in AP Pro32) wants to support Bryant and his family.
"What we've tried to do is come up with a plan for Dez like we would for any player who we feel like needs our support, and help him be his best as a player and as a person," Garrett said. "And the accountability factor is an important part of that with him and with anybody on our football team."
According to numerous reports, Bryant will attend weekly counseling sessions, have a full-time security team and not be allowed to consume alcohol or attend strip clubs.
Bryant was arrested in July for allegedly assaulting his mother, who has since said she doesn't want authorities to pursue charges against him. The Dallas County district attorney's office has yet to make a decision about charges.
There have been other off-the-field issues as well, though Bryant was having a solid offseason until his arrest two weeks before the start of training camp. Bryant's adviser, David Wells, and the player's attorney, Royce West, didn't return messages to The Associated Press.
"We have some things in place and we are still in the process of working out the rest," Wells told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in a story published Monday. "We are all working together to accomplish some things to help him succeed."
Bryant hasn't been available to speak to reporters since the start of training camp because of his pending legal issues.
There is also still the chance of discipline from the NFL. Garrett said he didn't know the status of that.
"We're going to control what we can control as an organization, and Dez has done everything that we've asked him to do up to this point both on and off the football field," Garrett said. "Any decision about that is out of our control."
Bryant is going into his third season with the Cowboys, who got him with the 24th overall draft pick.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? So much can change in four years.
Some 16 million babies have been born in the United States since 2008, the last year the Democrats and Republicans met to anoint their presidential nominees. Kids who were toddlers then are starting kindergarten now; that year's nervous high school freshmen are beginning college or work, or at least anxiously looking for jobs.
Nearly 10 million Americans have died, including political lights Geraldine Ferraro, Betty Ford and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who bade his dramatic convention farewell four years ago.
The Iraq war is over, the war in Afghanistan winding down. Osama bin Laden is dead. Yet Guantanamo Bay still holds 168 terror suspects. And too little has changed in a discouraging economy since 2008.
The political conventions are back to ask again if we, as individuals and as a nation, are better off than we were four years ago. That raises the question, where will we be four years from now?
It's fashionable these days to complain that the party gatherings no longer matter, that they're just phony made-for-TV moments ? speeches and sappy films and balloon drops strung together into protracted campaign commercials. That's true, as far as it goes.
The conventions no longer matter in picking presidential nominees. But that's because the choosing moved from the old smoke-filled rooms and rowdy delegate halls to a months-long carnival of democracy: debates and caucuses and primary voting across the country.
The conventions are made for TV. But that means made for all to see, across America and even the world. And the audience now gets to talk back, drafting its own instant platform via Twitter and Facebook and all our other electronic impulses.
The conventions are taxpayer-subsidized political commercials. But if they were only that, few would watch. We've seen too many mean ads already. By now most voters have made up their minds about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, anyway.
At their best, every four years, these mud-slinging, self-serving, partisan-by-definition displays rise to offer something more: moments that transcend politics.
Together, the two conventions make up a national stock-taking, a pause to remember our roots, figure out who we are and decide what's truly important, without feeling too hokey about it. Like a virtual family reunion, Americans gather around their televisions, computers or smartphones to argue or agree, celebrate the good stuff, mourn our losses and regret our mistakes, to regroup, to look ahead.
The conventions are Barbara Jordan, Jesse Jackson and Obama, their very presence on the podium insisting that the American dream no longer be deferred. And Ferraro and Sarah Palin and Hillary Rodham Clinton, bursting through doors once locked to them.
They are the thousands of Vietnam War protesters chanting outside the 1968 Democratic meeting, who couldn't be silenced by the tear gas and billy clubs of the Chicago police.
They are Robert Kennedy eulogizing the slain president who was also his big brother Jack. Nancy Reagan telling America that its Great Communicator is being hushed by Alzheimer's. Mary Fisher pleading with the nation to come to its senses and find its compassion so her children wouldn't feel ashamed someday to say out loud their mother died of AIDS.
Every four years, the political conventions come along to remind us how wrong we were about some things in the past. And that we know nothing, really, about what's to come.
It's no coincidence that Ronald Reagan, a genius at wielding metaphor, chose to speak at the 1976 GOP convention about what he would write in a time capsule letter to the future.
The conventions are time capsules, lovingly created and then buried in the rush to Election Day.
Dig through past conventions, their speeches and platforms, and you'll find a record not just of Americans' politics but also of their worries and fears, longings and dreams. Not just how the parties gave us Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. But also how passion to do something about slavery and civil rights and women's rights and poverty percolated up from the people and into the convention halls and the White House.
This year's speakers will talk about gay marriage, religious freedom, women's health, the national debt, joblessness. And someone may say something in a way that sticks in the national consciousness and helps build a consensus that one day, in hindsight, will seem blazingly obvious.
Conventions are far from perfect. Too much of their time is wasted on things parochial and elitist and just silly. Not much has changed since Bob Dole summed up the GOP event of 1980: "The introducers spoke longer than the speakers. And the speakers spoke too long."
But what else have we got? Self-consciously triumphant inaugurals, ponderous State of the Union speeches. Debates promise some spontaneity, but they're too narrow, focused only on four candidates.
The conventions are a political Olympics, democracy as spectator sport: Score the best efforts of mayors and governors and senators who might be president someday. Catch those candidates and insiders who claim to hate Washington and loathe politics openly reveling in the raucous, strapping national debate, whatever they prefer to call it. Watch regular folks still willing to turn out, in silly hats and buttons, to cheer for something they believe in.
Sure, it can feel predictable. But that's something to be grateful for ? a sign that today's primaries are running fairly smoothly and the nation's many troubles are less devastating than the crises of the past.
Isn't that a good thing so long as it lasts?
After all, the political stage managers won't be able to corral the chaos outside or quiet rising voices within the hall if America faces another crisis as deep as the Depression, another war as despised as Vietnam, another moral test as big as civil rights.
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Follow Connie Cass on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/ConnieCass
Using optimal Dr Scholls coupons allows people the ability to look after their feet well without breaking the bank. This is important because of late the price of almost every product available has become ever more costly, meaning that people have had to rely on inferior quality brands to look after their body. This is no longer the case thanks to vouchers and money off offers. Now people can counteract any foot difficulties with premium products.
People's feet are one of the most important parts of their body. They allow people free and easy movement around the world by walking. However, cooped up in shoes every day, they take an awful lot of punishment as they are forced to bear the weight of the average American body mass. If associated problems, such as corns or blisters, occur, they can cause debilitated movement.
They rub against the leather of running and casual shoes and become inflamed. The shooting pain that rises up through people's ankles and into their brain is known by almost everyone to be one of the worst pains in the world. Every single step adds to the hurt.
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Have you been striving to create a cellular marketing strategy that includes all of the main tactics? Keep reading to explore ways to use mobile technologies to your advertising and marketing advantages.
Make certain that the cell phone marketing campaign that you just use works with different kinds of programs. You need to have all different kinds of products from arbitrary phones under consideration when building your method. You will need to create your cell phone strategy compatible for all those mobile devices.
Be truthful with your buyers about the service. No one would like to be spammed. Let them opt in or away from your service. Since Text message and mobile devices are tied up carefully with each other, excessive use or misuse of the services will make your clients quite annoyed. It might sense quite intrusive. This is the reason it is actually so essential to simply concentrate on your Text messages campaign to buyers who may have agreed upon to receive mail messages. You should also stay with a limited amount of messages a month. This will help be seen as a reliable firm.
To create a very good cellular marketing plan, perform an usability test ahead of releasing the campaign. You can expect to defeat the purpose of your promotion if you send out mail messages which do not function or are inadequate. Try out your campaigns in your friends and co-workers first.
If you decide to include SMS messaging included in your cell phone marketing plan, you ought to definitely condition how regularly communications is going to be delivered when clients opt-in, and get a simple way to opt-out. Sms messages can be frustrating as a result of notifications. Customers could sense angry about the volume of texts they can be receiving. Make your consumers informed they can opt-into be given your SMS and become liable for the most amount of emails you may transmit monthly. When you are trustworthy, customers will rely on both you and your manufacturer.
Pick the best target market to your advertising initiatives, and be sure that your content material is beneficial in their eyes. In the event you give emails to strangers, you should make it really worth their time. A coupon to get a price cut at a stylish eating place might appeal to affluent business owners electronic products customers may reply better to a sneak peek in a manufacturer-new gadget. When your target market involves middle-school people, you ought to send mail messages which are loved ones friendly.
Equipped with this knowledge, you?ll be on your way to mobile phone advertising and marketing achievement. There is a world of information out there that you need to synthesize. Considering this, it is possible to polish your personal prepare and targets, and aid promote your business.
KSL-TV in Salt Lake City, Utah airs Law & Order: SVU on Wednesday nights. That program centers on such horrific crimes as rape and murder.
But the NBC affiliate has drawn its objectionable line at The New Normal, an upcoming sitcom from Glee creator Ryan Murphy that focuses on a gay couple and the family of its surrogate mother.
“For our brand, this program simply feels inappropriate on several dimensions, especially during family viewing time,” Jeff Simpson, CEO of KSL’s parent company, Bonneville International, said in a statement.
The decision has been met with backlash from those involved with the show and those who care about gay rights. First, there is star Ellen Barkin's reply on Twitter.
"Shame on you @kslcom," wrote the veteran actress, referring to the move as "blatantly homophic" and adding: "[A] loving gay couple having a baby is inappropriate? What will play in @NBCTheNewNormal spot? A dude reading from the bible?”
GLAAD President Herndon Graddick has also spoken out, saying of the axing:
“Same-sex families are a beloved part of American television thanks to shows like Modern Family, Glee and Grey’s Anatomy. While audiences, critics and advertisers have all supported LGBT stories, KSL is demonstrating how deeply out of touch it is with the rest of the country.”
KSL does not air Saturday Night Live and also dropped NBC's The Playboy Club last fall, citing that drama's “objectionable material."
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's lead over Mitt Romney in polls over who connects better with the average American is only temporary because of the negative tone of the Democratic campaign, Jeb Bush said in an interview that aired Sunday.
The former Florida governor, whose brother and father both served as presidents, concedes that Obama has an advantage right now by appearing to care more about average people.
But he said as Obama is "constantly attacking, constantly using negative messaging, I think his connectivity with people will drop."
He told NBC's "Meet the Press" that Romney has a chance at the upcoming Republican National Convention to reconnect with Americans and "show who he is, what's in his heart."
"The acceptance speech is a great place to start. And when he does that I think those numbers will get better," said Bush, who has been scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention. Bush said he plans to talk about education, a special interest of his.
Bush said recent debates over issues like abortion and Medicare remind that: "Republicans really need to be disciplined to stay focused on sustained economic growth (as) our objective and here's how we're going to do it, and here's why the president's failed."
And he cautioned that Republicans need to explain fully what they plan to do about Medicare.
"You can't just say, 'I'm for Medicare reform and leave it at that,' because then the attack machine on the other side says 'you're throwing granny off the cliff with ? in a wheelchair,'" said Bush, who grappled with the issue in his unsuccessful 1994 run for governor against Democrat Lawton Chiles.
Bush added: "You have to explain that the Romney plan does not change anything for anybody that is 55 years old and older."
The former Florida governor, whose wife Columba is Mexican-born, acknowledged his party has work to do in gaining support from Hispanic voters.
"Gov. Romney can make inroads if he focuses on how do we create a climate of job creation and economic growth," Bush said of the Hispanic vote. "And that's what I think this fall campaign's going to be about for their campaign. And I think people will move back toward the Republican side.
"But we've got to have a better tone going forward over the long haul for sure," he said. "You can't ask people to join your cause and then send a signal that 'you're really not wanted.' It just doesn't work."
In the construction of a home or a commercial property, the aesthetics are not the only thing considered but a number of other things such as the security measures that can be incorporated to ensure the protection of the property and of the people inside them. The materials used should be of excellent quality to ensure that the structure itself is stable. The design of the property should be well planned to ensure the highest level of security. Home fixtures that can contribute to the security of the property can be great additions to the property.
Window Shutters are not only considered as decorative window fixtures but can also be used to provide additional security. In a commercial property or a store where there are wide windows used to show customers the products that are being offered, window shutters made from sturdy materials can help cover the window completely especially when hours of operation are done for the day. It will prevent unscrupulous individuals from gaining access to the store through the window.
With the right style and color, window shutters can also become part of the d?cor of the property. They can match the theme that is being created. They can also provide the layer of privacy that property owners need. They can also be used to provide just the right amount of sunlight or shade that is needed. Installation will not be a problem as well because installation services can be provided by window shutter retailers. Customers just have to know what they need in window shutters so that they can have the proper ones installed on their window.
WORLD NEWS ? US astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died at the age of 82 on Saturday after suffering complications from heart bypass surgery.
President Barack Obama said Armstrong ?delivered a moment of human achievement that will be never be forgotten? and called him ?one of the greatest American heroes of all time?.
It was a label that Armstrong himself was never comfortable with.
He shunned the limelight for years after that famous flight, refusing to give interviews or sign autographs.
Armstrong said he did not want to be ?a living memorial.?
His pre-NASA career was spent serving in the US navy during the Korean War and as a test pilot for the military.
But the Apollo 11 commander will perhaps always be remembered for uttering one of the most famous quotes in the English language on that night of July 20th 1969:
?One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.?
The franchising business is vastly learning to be a craze inside business world today. Lots of people are tempted using the benefit that gives rather than needing to make a brand new business from scratch. Before participating in the franchise, follow this advice for you to get sound advice to get started on way up any franchising business:
Research and also gather data for top business franchise there is these days.
You?ll find lots or thousands of numerous franchising businesses inside market nowadays. Which means you need to study and also do excellent sufficient duration of research on the would be the developments inside the market and also what type of franchising business suitable in your town. You?ll be able to check websites with regards to far more franchising business information and also read magazines and also newspapers. In addition, check the trustworthiness of your franchising business you need and also check his or her prices and other relevant specifics of your products as well as services. You should find out coming from customers of the franchising business if they?re content with your products and services in addition to their return rate to that business.
Choose a durable business plan and also fantastic business earnings model.
You have to extensively examine and also see the business plan of the franchisor to be able to apply in which plan regarding success. Check also when the franchisor?s revenue models are impressive along with efficient. You are able to check their particular rankings inside market in addition to their quantity of years in the business. Should they keep afloat within the market regarding number of years it indicates that this business features a strong business profit design. Thoroughly check if your products of the franchising business can be found in other places using smaller cost. For example, it would be hard in order to franchise a local DVD or CD stores currently because of the rampant syndication online. You can download tunes as well as movies online for free. And so the profits because of this type regarding franchise are low.
Have a very good deal of information about the particular financial aspects concerned.
You have to know exactly how long it will take in order to gain your investment back. Furthermore, be aware of cost involved in running your franchise. One may be the overhead cost. Instances of this particular cost are usually salaries from the staff, tools necessary for functions, along with leases and much more. The opposite type of cost is actually adjustable cost depending on your sales. Examples are fuels for delivery van as required inside the business and also components important to the end result from the product. By way of example in a ice cream parlour resources needed are generally cups, spoons and more.
Recognize as well as see the valuables in anything.
The franchise contract will be the deal agreed upon through the two franchisor and franchisee within the terms of running your business. They?re in which you invest writing each of the decided ideas inside the franchising business. When you have been any franchisee you have to certainly read and also recognize first do you know the regulations agreed inside the deal. Determine it really is to save you time. Once you fully understand the requisites inside the contract you are able to question the particular franchisor a number of amendments when not in your benefit. You may also hire a legal group in order to check for the commitment in case you might have read and also realize it you can create sure that your authorized group is not going to pose your own arms within legal fees.
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Public release date: 29-Aug-2012
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